Information storage and retrieval system and display method therefor

ABSTRACT

An information storage and retrieval system which permits storage of fact information represented in terms of conceptual concepts expressing things and relational concepts expressing relations therebetween on a knowledge base, easy inputting and correction of the fact information, easy browsing and retrieval of the fact information and display of the fact information with effective use of a limited view area, and also to provide a display method used in the information storage and retrieval system. The system includes a device for inputting fact information with respect to a specific relational concept according to a template pattern by using a multi-window function on the basis of information obtained from a concept dictionary for defining hierarchical relations between concepts and a grammar rule for defining semantic structures of cases and concepts allowed to be used in the cases; a device for storage and retrieval of fact information; and a device for displaying fact information in a fact window and displaying a hierarchy of conceptual concepts and relational concepts in a node tree window.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a CIP of U.S. patent application Ser. No.07/430,241 filed on Oct. 30, 1989 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,553,226, which isa CIP of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/276,384 filed on Nov. 25,1988 now abandoned which is a CIP of U.S. patent application Ser. No.06/844,123 filed on Mar. 26, 1986 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,868,733; and U.S.patent application Ser. No. 07/831,093 filed on Feb. 10, 1992 now U.S.Pat. No. 5,404,506 which is a CA of the above U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 07/276,384 filed on Nov. 25, 1988 which is now abandoned, thedisclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an information storage and retrievalsystem using a knowledge base and, more particularly, relates to adisplay method in an information storage and retrieval system whichpermits inputting of semantic information such as a natural language inthe form of knowledge to be processed by a computer, and freelydisplaying of the contents of a knowledge base stored in a computersystem by using a multi-window function.

Heretofore, management of a data base which permits storage andretrieval of an enormous amount of information has been relied on bythose skilled in the art. However, in accompaniment to the developmentof document filing systems using optical disks in recent years, suchexpert management is imposed on end users. For example, a command typeinputting method which can be used easily by those skilled in the art isa large burden to the end users.

In conventional computer techniques, it is general that documents aremanaged in tubular form listing bibliographic data such as author'snames and original sources attached to the documents when the documentsare stored in this type document filing system. Because thebibliographic data are objective items, registration thereof can be madeeasily. It is, however, relatively rare to use the bibliographic data asmeans for retrieval. In most cases, keywords and classification codesprovided as clues to the contents of documents are used as means forretrieval. However, the following two problems arise in use of keywords.The first problem is encountered in registration of a document, in whichit is difficult to determine the keyword which makes it possible toretrieve properly the associated document later on. The second problemis encountered in retrieval of a document, in which it is difficult torecall keywords to generate the retrieval formula composed of thekeywords.

As an attempt to cope with the above problems, a research for datainputting by using a natural language has been proposed but has not beenused widely. Because the interface for data inputting by using a naturallanguage is not yet completed so that the percentage of correct analysisof input sentences is insufficient, there frequently arises thesituation in which the system cannot analyze the input sentencesresulting in the input sentences being rejected or retry requested.Knowledge of a large number of restrictions and rules is required forinputting sentences which can be analyzed correctly by the system. Thelabor required for remembering the restrictions and rules is equal tothe labor required for remembering commands.

Accordingly, the present situation is that the document as an object ofdesire cannot be retrieved speedily.

As an attempt to cope with the above problems, there is known a systemin which a knowledge base is applied to the filing system, as disclosedin U.S. Pat. No. 4,868,733. Furthermore, some methods about displaytechniques in a knowledge base have been proposed. Furthermore, a methodof exhibiting candidate sentences allowed to be inputted at the time ofinputting of a sentence by using a knowledge base to thereby make itpossible to select a sentence from the candidate sentences on the basisof user's judgment to reconcile both easy usability and easy analysishas been proposed as a sentence inputting method as disclosed inJP-A-1-140,332 (corresponding to U.S. application Ser. No. 07/276,384filed, Nov. 25, 1988, abandoned).

The expression of knowledge in a knowledge base as described in U.S.Pat. No. 4,868,733 and JP-A-1-140,332 will be described below withreference to FIG. 5.

FIG. 5 diagramatically shows "concepts" stored in a knowledge base. Inthe drawing, the ellipses represent "concepts", and the arrows represent"relations". In the knowledge base, concepts are hierarchicallyconnected by is-a relations and part-whole relations. First, allconcepts in the knowledge base are connected to one another by is-arelations under "UNIVERSAL" 501 which is an uppermost concept defined tosubsume all the other concepts. The is-a relation means the relation"concept X is a concept Y". By reference to a concept, upper conceptsrelative to the concept are called super concepts and lower conceptsrelative to the concept are called subconcepts. For example, superconcepts of "person" 515 are "intellectual entity" 505, "thing" 503 and"UNIVERSAL" 501. Furthermore, some concepts are connected by part-wholerelations. The part-whole relation means the relation "concept X is apart of concept Y". For example, "Shinshu" 529 is a part of "Japan" 527.Furthermore, each concept can have a plurality of is-a relations andpart-whole relations. For example, super concepts of "company" 534 aretwo concepts "organization" 507 and "place" 525.

In the knowledge base, a fact is expressed by two concepts and onerelation, that is, by a binomial relation. First, two general conceptsare linked by a general relation. Because the relation between twoconcepts is expressed in terms, the relation has two differentrelational names so that either of the concepts connected to both endsof the relation can be used as a subject. For example, concepts "person"515 and "degree" 521 are connected by a general relation "take" 536. Therelation "take" has two names "taken by" and "take" as expression with"degree" as a subject

"degree taken by person", and as expression with "person" as a subject

"person took degree".

A relation for linking two specific concepts is called specificrelation. To generate this relation, the concepts must be connected by ageneral relation in which super concepts thereof have the samerelational name. For example, concepts "Taro Hitachi" 517 and "bachelorof engineering" 523 are connected by a special relation "take" 537. Bythis relation, a special fact "Taro Hitachi took bachelor ofengineering" can be expressed. The "relations" for connecting conceptsmake it possible to associably "browse" through the concepts stored inthe knowledge base. A concept being viewed or noticed by the userbrowsing through concepts is called current concept.

By storing knowledge in the above form, inputting of an explanatorysentence and retrieval of a special fact from an explanatory querysentence as a means of retrieval can be performed as described in U.S.Pat. No. 4,868,733 and JP-A-1-140,332. For example, inputting of factinformation "news item #0468 on the subject of Creative WS 2050developed by Hitachi placed in Tokyo" and retrieval of the factinformation from a query formula "News item on the subject of a computerdeveloped by a company placed in Japan ?" can be performed. A naturallanguage interface is used when a query request is issued in theinformation retrieval system.

In the aforementioned, conventional techniques, however, expression ofknowledge to be registered is insufficient as follows.

The first problem is caused by that fact knowledge is expressed bybinomial relations. When, for example, a fact is expressed by usingthree or more concepts as "Taro Hitachi took bachelor of engineering atUniversity A", a plurality of general relations and specific relationsmust be used. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, "Taro Hitachi" 517 and"bachelor of engineering" 523 must be connected by a relation "take" 537and, at the same time, "University A" 513 and "bachelor of engineering"523 must be connected by another relation "take at" 539. In this case,there is no proper relation between "Taro Hitachi" 517 and "UniversityA" 513, so that the two concepts must be connected through "bachelor ofengineering".

When a plurality of things are expressed as knowledge, similar thingsare often confused.

For example, for expression of the two things

"A bought book X at B shop" and

"A bought magazine Y at C shop", the things must be separated into fourrelations for registration

"A bought book X",

"A bought at B shop",

"A bought magazine Y" and

"A bought at C shop".

When things are separated into a plurality of binomial relations asdescribed above, however, there arises a problem in that the judgment asto whether the shop at which "A" bought "book X" is "B shop" or "C shop"cannot be made.

The second problem is in that indefinite knowledge cannot be registeredin the situation such as "maybe A company" or "A company or B company".Furthermore, a set of concepts such as "A set of A company and B companydeveloped RISC machine" or knowledge such as "A company being a computermaker and a semiconductor maker developed RISC machine" cannot beregistered.

The third problem is in that facts registered in the knowledge basecannot be displayed properly with respect to a special relation. When,for example, a general relation

"degree taken at university"

is pointed for display with respect to a relation "take", a fact"bachelor of engineering taken at University A" can be displayed to theuser. However, a general relation

"person took degree"

is not pointed, so that the user cannot know the fact "Taro Hitachi tookbachelor of engineering" though the same verb "take" is used.

The fourth problem arises in the display function when theaforementioned problems are solved. When the display function isextended so that the polynomial relation "Taro Hitachi took bachelor ofengineering at University A" as well as the binomial relation can beexpressed, the following problem arises in the conventional techniques.That is, browsing through facts is associative browsing which interactswith frame display of concepts. When, for example, frame display withrespect to "bachelor of engineering" is performed, it can be known fromthe frame that "bachelor of engineering" is "degree" and "taken by TaroHitachi" and "taken at University A". When what is "Taro Hitachi" isthen to be known, the frame with respect to "Taro Hitachi" can beexamined by pointing "Taro Hitachi" through a mouse. However, when thebrowsing method is applied to the knowledge base of polynomialrelations, not only each fact becomes long but a large number of factsare displayed. As a result, the merit of a list is lowered. Furthermore,similar things may be often confused when a plurality of things aredisplayed. There is not yet known any method of providing easy browsingto the user by properly displaying a large amount of information havinga complex structure as described above.

As described above, the conventional techniques have various problems.As described above, the conventional method of displaying knowledge onthe basis of binomial relations has a problem in that fact knowledgebased polynomial relations cannot be expressed properly. Furthermore,semantic defects and problems on display arise when display is madeforcedly.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A first object of the present invention is to provide an extension typeconcept network model in which polynomial relations can be expressed sothat semantic information based on polynomial relations can be expressedon a computer according to the model to thereby solve the aforementionedproblems.

A second object of the invention is to provide a display method in whicha limited view area is utilized so effectively that the user can see thecontents of the knowledge base easily to thereby solve the displayproblems derived from improvement of the knowledge expression capacity.

A third object of the invention is to easily generate sentencesexpressed by polynomial relations by using a pointing device.

The foregoing objects are attained by the provision of an extension typeconcept network model to make it possible to express polynomialrelations by using "concepts" and "relations" and, at the same time, bythe provision of a function for inputting and display of semanticinformation allowed to be expressed by the model in the form ofrearranged data.

That is, the present invention provides an information storage andretrieval system using a concept relation model for representingknowledge in terms of concepts and relations defined between theconcepts, which comprises: means for selecting a fact concept or arelational concept used in an input sentence from a conceptual tree(node tree) for concepts which include conceptual concepts expressingthings and relational concepts expressing relations defined between theconcepts, for extracting candidate sentences allowed to use the selectedconcept by using templates, each of which defines semantic informationpeculiar to the relational concepts, information concerning theconceptual concepts and information concerningprepositions/postpositions, and for focusing the input sentences fromthe extracted candidate sentences; means for inputting fact informationaccording to the structure of the templates; means for storing the factinformation inputted by the input means and for retrieving a desiredconcept on the basis of the stored fact information; means fordisplaying a fact window for the fact information, an input window forthe semantic information for the candidate sentences and the templates,a node tree window for a hierarchy of the conceptual concepts and therelational concepts to perform at least one of the focusing of thecandidate sentences, the inputting of the fact information and theretrieval of the requested conceptual concept.

The principle and operation of the knowledge expression and displaymethod in the present invention will be described blow.

A concept network as the knowledge expression method and in the systemaccording to the invention will be described with reference to FIG. 6.

In an extension concept network, "concept" representing a thing such asa person's name or a place name is expressed and called conceptualconcept. In this specification, the conceptual concept is also calledconcept. Besides the concept, "relation" which has been heretoforecalled link is also expressed as a kind of "concept" and calledrelational concept. Relational concepts are classified into verbalconcepts representing verbs and attribute concepts representingattributes. These relational concepts as well as the conventionalconcepts have is-a relations. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 6,"concept" 603 and "relation" 633 rank below the uppermost concept"UNIVERSAL" 601. Further, "DO relation" 635 which is a general name forverbal concepts and "BE relation" 643 which is a general name forattribute concepts rank below "relation" 633. Further, "get" 637, "take"639 and the like are subsumed under "DO relation" and "nationality" 645and the like are subsumed under "BE relation".

The relational concepts can have semantic information peculiar thereto.Each of the attribute concepts can be defined by two concepts assemantic constituent elements thereof. Each of the verbal concepts canbe defined by two or more concepts as semantic constituent elementsthereof. A grammar rule H-403 constituted by a combination of relationalconcepts and concepts as semantic constituent elements is calledtemplate. The semantic roles of the concepts embedded in the templateare called cases. The relational concepts and the concepts are connectedby links called case links. For example, a template for a verbal concept"get" is expressed in the form of " intellectual entity! get! thing! atorganization! in time!" 648 (FIG. 6). This template defines"intellectual entity" 623 as agent case representing a subject ofaction, "thing" 617 as object case, "organization" 611 as collection-incase and "time" 605 as time case, respectively. The concepts defined ascases, such as "intellectual entity" and "thing", are called caseconstraint concepts. As a case constraint concept, a plurality ofconcepts can be defined. One template to each relational concept can bedefined. The concept allowed to be defined in a case in a lower-ranktemplate is a subconcept subsumed under the concept defined in acorresponding case in a higher-rank template. For example, a template649 for "take" which is a subconcept of "get" defines "person" 625 asagent case and "license" 619 as object case, respectively, and furtherdefines "organization" 613 as collection-in case and "time" 607 as timecase, respectively, in the same manner as the template 648 for "get".The concept "person" 625 as agent case is a subconcept of "intellectualentity" 623. A concept dictionary 401 defines high-low relations, thatis, is-a relations, and part-whole relations between concepts. Ashigh-low relations between relational concepts, is-a relations aredefined. The concept dictionary is constructed by these relations andhas a tree structure.

On the other hand, a template for an attribute concept "nationality" isexpressed in the form of "nationality of person! is nation!" 651. Here,"person" 625 as an attribute object case representing the center of theattribute described and "nation" 629 as an attribute value caserepresenting the value of the attribute are defined as case constraintconcepts, respectively. A hierarchy can be given to the template for anattribute concept by is-a relations in the same manner as the templatefor a verbal concept. As described above, frames of fact knowledge to beexpressed can be accumulated as general knowledge by a set of templatesand concept dictionaries. When, for example, a collection-in case ispointed in the template 649 for "take", "organization" 611 can berepresented as a candidate. On the contrary, a template in which"license" 619 is defined as case constraint concept or case in which theconcept is defined in the template can be retrieved.

Specific knowledge (fact knowledge) to be initially stored in the systemcan be expressed by embedding special concepts in templates therefor andcan be stored in the knowledge base. For example, in expression of afact "Taro Hitachi took bachelor of engineering at University A in 1970"650 (FIG. 6), "Taro Hitachi" 627 as agent case, "bachelor ofengineering" 621 as object case, "University A" 615 as collection-incase and "1970" 609 as time case are successively embedded in a templatefor "take". In expression of a fact "nationality of Taro Hitachi isJapan" 652, "Taro Hitachi" 627 as attribute object case and "Japan" 631as attribute value case are successively embedded in a template for"nationality".

As described above, fact knowledge to be accumulated can be expressed bythe structures of templates given to a verbal concept and an attributeconcept, so that the sense thereof can be expressed as data in theinside of the computer. Fact information expressing the fact knowledgeis generated as a semantic sentence. The concepts embedded in thetemplates representing semantic information are concepts managed in ahierarchical conceptual system, to make semantic retrieval usinginference possible as will be described later.

The principle of the knowledge display, query editing and factinformation inputting method as well as the total structure andoperation of the information storage and retrieval system using theknowledge expression method will be described below.

FIG. 3 shows an example of functional arrangement of an informationstorage and retrieval system using a Concept Network. The user interactswith the system through a display unit 202, a keyboard 203 and a mouse204. On the basis of user's request, the system performs retrieval anddisplay of necessary information or performs storage and accumulation offragmentary information inputted by the user in a knowledge base 309constituted by a Concept Network.

Concept Network data expressed according to a predetermined expressionmodel, such as for example information concerning templates, informationconcerning a concept dictionary and information concerning input factsand queries, are stored in the knowledge base 309. The data can beexpressed in the form of text, so that the data can be exchanged to datain another system. The data are read in a memory in a Concept NetworkManager 307 at the time of starting of the system and converted into aninternal data structure to make high-speed retrieval possible. TheConcept Network data expressed by the internal data structure areaccessed from a Concept Network Editor (CE) 304, a View Generator (VG)305 and a Concept Searcher (CS) 306 and processed for editing, displayand retrieval of knowledge (Concept Network).

The interaction with the user is controlled by an I/O controller 315.The I/O controller is composed of a Window Manager (WM) 308 and an EventAnalyzer (EV) 311. Input information from the keyboard 203 and the mouse204 is analyzed by the Event Analyzer and processed by an interactiveview controller 320. The interactive view controller is composed of aConcept Network Editing Manager (CED) 301, a Browser (BR) 302 and aQuery Editor (QE) 303. In alteration of information in the knowledgebase, input information is delivered to the Concept Network Managerthrough the Concept Network Editing Manager 301 and the Concept NetworkEditor. Information necessary for display is fed from the manager to theView Generator, so that the updated contents of the information aredisplayed on a multi-window of a display unit through the Browser andthe Window Manager. In editing of query sentences, information isconverted into the form of a sentence using templates by the QueryEditor, so that information in the manager is retrieved through theConcept Searcher.

The present invention is relates to the Browser, the Concept NetworkEditor and the Query Editor.

In the following, the operation of the system will be described withreference to an example of interactive display shown in FIG. 1. First,the structure of the interactive display will be described. Theinteractive display is composed of a plurality of windows. Basic windowswhich are continuously displayed are a super-concept window 101, a queryediting window 102 and a node tree window 103. The window 105 shown inFIG. 1 is a fact window displayed by user's selection. The detail of thefact window is shown in FIG. 7.

The query process is carried out as follows. The query editing functionwhich will be described later is performed by the Query Editor 303. Whenthe user clicks the mouse 204 to shift the pointer (arrow) in theinteractive display (FIG. 1) to the query editing window 102, the windowis activated so that the user can select an arbitrary element in thequery to be edited. In FIG. 1, company! 107 in the first line in thewindow represents a concept to be retrieved. Sentences 108, 109, 110 and111 in the second line and below the second line are conditionalsentences to be satisfied by "company" 107. The modification relationsbetween the conditional sentences are expressed by indentation in therespective lines as shown in the drawing.

Here, the user can select an arbitrary concept (noun) enclosed inbrankets ( !) and an arbitrary conditional sentence through the mouse.When a concept enclosed in brankets is pointed, data displayed in thenode tree window 103 are rewritten to a category containing the selectedconcept. When, for example, "company" 107 in the query editing window ispointed, the node tree in the node tree window is rewritten to a nodetree containing the concept "company as shown in FIG. 1. That is, thesystem identifies the selected concept from the whole concept network,selects a super concept (in this case, selects "intellectual entity")including the selected concept and displays a category containing theconcept. For example, at this time, "company" is highlighted by arectangle 106. The highlighted concept is called current concept.

The super-concept window 101 permits display of a row of concepts (inFIG. 1, from "company" 116 to "UNIVERSAL" 112) connected upward withrespect to the current concept.

When an arbitrary concept displayed in the node tree window is pointedby clicking the left button of the mouse, the current concept isreplaced by the pointed concept. At the same time, the super-conceptwindow and the query editing window are altered correspondingly. When,for example, the current concept is altered from "company" to "financialbusiness", the super-concept window 101 is altered so that "financialbusiness" and super concepts are displayed. In the query editing window102, "company" 107 is rewritten to "financial business". As describedabove, these basic windows operate so as to be linked to one another, sothat the user can edit the query by reference to the contents of theknowledge base. For example, a concept which cannot be remembered may beremembered by a stimulus that the node tree displayed is seen.Furthermore, the category as an object of retrieval can be minimized byexpressing the query in terms of concepts as low as possible. The timerequired for retrieval can be shortened as the results of retrieval arefocused.

Besides the concept rewriting function, the following functions are usedin query editing. When a concept enclosed in brankets in a query ispointed by clicking the right button of the mouse, a list of functionsis displayed as a pop-up menu. The list of functions contains:

1) addition of conditional sentence;

2) deletion of case; and

3) execution of retrieval.

When the head of a conditional sentence is pointed by clicking the rightbutton of the mouse, a list of functions is displayed as a pop-up menu.The list of functions contains:

4) deletion of conditional sentence; and

5) addition of case.

The conditional sentence addition function is applied to a pointedconcept such as "company" 107. When this function is selected from themenu, a group of relations modifying (restricting) "company" aredisplayed in another window. For example, a large number of concepts,"establish" as a verb using "company" as an object case, "have" as averb using "company" as an agent case, "meet" as a verb using "company"as a collection-in case, and the like, are listed up. In the case ofFIG. 1, the user selects "have" from the list. Because the listgenerally contains a large number of relations (conditional clausesexpressed in terms of verbal concepts and attribute concepts), thefunction of focusing concepts to be requested by the user is important.For this end, the function of focusing candidates for conditionalclauses can be provided by performing string matching.

When the user selected one relation such as a verb "have", the systemdisplays cases limiting the sense of the verb by reference to thetemplate (see FIG. 6) attached to the verbal concept "have" and inquiresof the user what case is used as a condition. For example, the agentcase has been determined as "company". Accordingly, other cases such as"collection-in case" and "object case" are listed up and displayed. Whenthe user selects the collection-in case and the object case, thefollowing sentence is displayed.

"The company has thing! at place!"

Here, the user can alter "place" to "Shinshu" and "thing" to "office" bythe aforementioned method, so that the conditional sentence 108 can begenerated.

The case deletion function is provided to loosen the condition. When,for example, the function is called while pointing the concept "Shinshu"in the conditional sentence, the conditional sentence 108 can beloosened as "The company has office!".

The query executing function is provided to retrieve a pointed concept.When, for example, the function is called while pointing "company" 107,"company" modified (restricted) by conditional sentences 180, 109, 110and 111 is retrieved by using classification inference. Besides conceptsin the first line, the retrieval can be applied to concepts inconditional sentences in the second line and below the second line.When, for example, the query executing function is started whilepointing the concept "person" 120 in the conditional sentence 109 by themouse, "person published essay in magazine" can be retrieved. By usingthis function, a judgment can be made as to whether each condition issatisfied.

By pointing the head of a conditional sentence through the mouse, theconditional sentence can be deleted. Accordingly, the query conditioncan be loosened.

Furthermore, a new case can be added to the conditional sentence. When,for example, the case addition function is started while pointing thehead of the conditional sentence "The company has office!", relationalconcepts in the conditional sentence are displayed in another window,that is, in this case, case structures of the verbal concept "have" aredisplayed in another window. Specifically, "at place!", "in time!", "forobject!", "by means!" and the like are displayed. Because initiallyexisting case elements " intellectual entity!" and " thing!" have beenused in the query, the case elements are indicated so that they cannotbe selected. For example, the user can select "at place!" so that theconditional sentence can be changed as follows.

"The company has office! at place!"

As described above, the condition of the query can be made more rigorousby this function.

Not only a list of concepts corresponding to the query can be displayedas a result of retrieval, but a sentence generated by substitutingspecific concepts into the concepts in the query can be displayed as aresult of retrieval. For example, with respect to the query:

" company!:?

It has office! in Shinshu!.

It was rebuilt by person!." (801), three cases of results "ShinshuRealtor Co." 803, "Azuma Co." 804 and "Kawase Realtor Co." 805 aredisplayed in the result list window 802 as shown in FIG. 8. When, forexample, "Shinshu Realtor Co." is selected from the concepts displayedin the window,

"Shinshu Realtor Co.

It has Shinshu Nagano office in Shinshu.

It was rebuilt by Taro Hitachi." (811) is displayed in the resultbrowser window 810. Here, "Nagano City" 812, "Shinshu Nagano office" 813and "Taro Hitachi" 814 are specific concepts in the knowledge base,which satisfy the conditions in the query. In this case, it is necessarythat the following facts are registered as fact knowledge in theknowledge base.

"Shinshu Realtor Co. is company"

"Shinshu Nagano office is office"

"Taro Hitachi is person"

"Nagano City is a part of Shinshu"

"Shinshu Realtor Co. has Shinshu Nagano office in Nagano City"

"Shinshu Nagano office was rebuilt by Taro Hitachi".

The above retrieval can be realized by an inference retrieval process inwhich classification inference is called. With respect to the specificmethod of realizing the inference process, for example, a method asdisclosed in Masato Shibazaki et al. "Case Structure Data Base usingNatural Language Semantic Information as an Object", InformationProcessing Society, Fundamental Infology Study Meeting Material (SIGFI)No. 21-5 (May 28, 1991) can be used.

A characteristic function in this invention is a function of displayingmore detailed information in a fact window by pointing an arbitraryconcept in the result display shown in FIG. 8. For example, relationalfacts can be displayed in the fact window 700 shown in FIG. 7 bypointing "Taro Hitachi" 814. The window has a concept name as a label701 expressing a concept provided therein. Data displayed in the windoware attribute facts and verbal facts for the concept. The facts aredisplayed in tabular form in an attribute fact area 702 and a verbalfact area 703, respectively.

Attribute facts are expressed by attribute names 712, 714, 716 and 718and corresponding attribute values 713, 715, 717. Because attributefacts have binomial relations, the facts must be displayedbidirectionally. For example, "Taro Hitachi" may be registered as anattribute value of another concept as well as the attribute of "TaroHitachi" as follows.

"Nationality of Taro Hitachi is Japan", and

"Designer of Katagiri's residence is Taro Hitachi"

Accordingly, as a knowledge display function, bidirectional display isrequired. Each of the symbols ">>" and "<<" provided to attribute namesindicates a direction in the binomial relation.

Verbal facts are displayed in tabular form as shown ion FIG. 7. Forexample, verbal facts are displayed as follows: "Taro Hitachi graduatedfrom University A in 1970"; "Taro Hitachi took doctorate at University Bin 1975"; and "(SET:Taro Hitachi;Yoshio Tanaka) established office inKobuchizawa". Herein, (SET:X;Y) 720 represents a sum set of concept Xand concept Y. In this case, the latter sentence expresses "Taro Hitachiand Yoshio Tanaka together established office".

Serial number for fact is displayed in the head of each fact. As shownin FIG. 7, number 7111 is "4" and, on the other hand, number 710 is "6".That is, number "5" is not displayed. This shows that a fact "TaroHitachi took . . . " identified by number "5" exists. As describedabove, when a large number of facts are provided, the outline thereofcan be exhibited to-the user so that it is easy to understand, by hiding(not displaying) similar facts. This method is a display method foreffectively utilizing a display having a limited area.

In the following, the principle of inputting of facts and queries willbe described.

A flow chart of a process for inputting one sentence is shown in FIG. 4on the basis of relations between concept dictionaries and grammar rulesof temples. p When, for example, a fact

"Taro Hitachi took bachelor of engineering at University A"

is to be inputted in a knowledge base, one of concepts "Taro Hitachi","University A", "bachelor of engineering" and "take" is selected from aconcept dictionary at concept selection 405. Assuming now that "take" isselected, then cases to be used are selected from a template for "take"at case selection 415 because it is unnecessary to perform candidateextraction 407, focusing 409 and candidate display 411. In this case,agent case, collection-in case and object case are pointed. Because caseconstraint concepts registered in the template have been respectivelyplaced in these cases, subconcepts subsumed under the case constraintconcepts are respectively selected, as concepts to be put in the cases,from the concept dictionary. In this case, "Taro Hitachi", "UniversityA" and "bachelor of engineering" are selected as agent case,collection-in case and object case, respectively. Then, the selectedconcepts are displayed (417) after work order, inclusive ofprepositions/postpositions, is rearranged on the basis of a grammarrule.

When, for example, a query

"person which took bachelor of engineering at University A ?"

is to be inputted, "take" may be selected in the same manner asdescribed above to thereby perform the inputting of the query orconditions given to "person" may be listed so that selection from theconditions can be made. In the latter case, "person" as an object ofretrieval is first selected at concept selection (405). Then, conditionsgiven to "person" are extracted and displayed as a list at candidateextraction 407. Relations in which super concepts of "person" in theconcept dictionary are set as case constraint concepts of templates areextracted from relations registered as grammar rules and are displayedto thereby make it possible to perform candidate extraction.

When a large number of candidate sentences are provided, focusing 409can be performed. For example, relations having cases allowed to befilled with "bachelor of engineering" are selected from the list ofrelations displayed, so that candidate display 411 can be performed byrearranging the prescribed form by using the selected relations.

In sentence selection 413, relations used in a sentence to be inputtedamong candidate sentences are selected. Cases to be used are selectedfrom cases in the selected relations and concepts to be inputted in thecases are selected at case selection 415 and sentence display 417 in thesame manner as the inputting of sentences in the knowledge base.

In selection of concepts to be inputted into cases at case selection415, concepts subsumed under case constraint concepts, selected in theconcept dictionary, are displayed in one window to aid conceptselection.

A sentence modifying a concept in an input sentence can be provided byrepeating the above procedure through selecting the concept from theinput sentence at concept selection 405.

As described above, fact information for concepts and relationsregistered in the knowledge base can be displayed or inputted.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a view showing an example of display for visual expression ofknowledge in an information storage and retrieval system according tothe present invention;

FIG. 2 is a view showing a system arrangement of a filing system usingthe information storage and retrieval system;

FIG. 3 is a view showing a module arrangement of the information storageand retrieval system;

FIG. 4 is a view showing a flow of the sentence generating routine;

FIG. 5 is a view showing an example of conventional knowledgeexpression;

FIG. 6 is a view showing an example of knowledge expression according tothe present invention;

FIG. 7 is a view showing an example of display of facts expressed interms of a pointed concept "Taro Hitachi";

FIG. 8 is a view showing an example of display of a result retrieved bya retrieval function of the information storage and retrieval system;

FIG. 9 is a view showing a data structure of concept information in aknowledge base;

FIG. 10 is a view showing a data structure of verbal concept informationin the knowledge base;

FIG. 11 is a view showing a data structure of template information for averbal concept "take" in the knowledge base;

FIG. 12 is a view showing a data structure of fact information "TaroHitachi took doctorate at University A in 1975" expressed by a verbalconcept in the knowledge base;

FIG. 13 is a view showing a data structure of fact information "TaroHitachi and Taro Tanaka established office at Kobuchizawa" expressed bya verbal concept in the knowledge base;

FIG. 14 is a view showing a data structure of template information foran attribute concept "nationality" in the knowledge base;

FIG. 15 is a view showing a data structure of fact information"Nationality of Taro Hitachi is Japan" expressed by an attribute conceptin the knowledge base;

FIG. 16 is a view showing a data structure in which verbal factsexpressed by a pointed concept "Taro Hitachi" are developed on a memoryby reference to the semantic priority order of cases;

FIG. 17 is a view showing a data structure in which view data ofrepresentative facts are reconstructed by grouping developed facts byverbal concepts;

FIG. 18 is a view showing a data structure in which super concepts aredeveloped on a fact information view memory;

FIG. 19 is a view showing a data structure in which attribute factsexpressed by a pointed concept are extracted by reference to thesemantic priority order of cases and developed to be added to the datastructure of FIG. 18;

FIG. 20 is a view showing a data structure in which the facts developedin FIG. 19 are grouped by attribute concepts and reconstructed;

FIG. 21 is view showing a data structure in which view data of factsinitially displayed in the view data in FIG. 17 are developed;

FIG. 22 is a view showing a data structure in which the view data offacts selected in FIG. 35 are added to the view data in FIG. 21;

FIG. 23 is a view showing a state in which information concerning apointed concept is held;

FIG. 24 is a view showing a state in which information concerning asentence due to attributes is held;

FIG. 25 is a view showing a state in which information concerning atemplate for attributes is held;

FIG. 26 is a view showing a state in which information concerning asentence due to relations is held;

FIG. 27 is a view showing a state in which information concerning atemplate for relations due is held;

FIG. 28 is a view showing a state in which information for retrievingtemplates allowed to use a pointed concept is held;

FIG. 29 is a view showing display at browsing through fact informationexpressed by a pointed verbal concept "take";

FIG. 30 is a view showing an example of display of facts expressed by apointed verbal concept "take";

FIG. 31 is a view showing display at browsing through fact informationexpressed by a pointed attribute concept "nationality";

FIG. 32 is a view showing an example of display of facts expressed by apointed attribute concept "nationality";

FIG. 33 is a view showing display of facts for "take" in which "TaroHitachi" is registered as an agent case;

FIG. 34 is a view showing an example of display of facts for "take" inwhich "Taro Hitachi" is registered as an agent case;

FIG. 35 is a view showing an example of display of facts after anaddition button is selected in the display of facts as shown in FIG. 34;

FIG. 36 is a view showing an example of display of facts after the factselected in FIG. 35 is added;

FIG. 37 is a view showing an example of display of facts expressed by apointed concept "person" and subconcepts thereof;

FIG. 38 is a view showing display at browsing through fact informationfor a verbal concept "take" and a concept "Taro Hitachi";

FIG. 39 is a view showing display at browsing through fact informationfor an attribute concept "nationality" and a concept "Taro Hitachi";

FIG. 40 is a view showing display at browsing through fact informationfor concepts "Taro Hitachi" and "Japan";

FIG. 41 is a view showing an example of display of the full sentence ofa pointed fact;

FIG. 42 is a view of a group of view windows at the time of sentencegeneration in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 43 is a view of the case where a participial modification sentenceis generated;

FIG. 44 is a view showing a display state in which a plurality of anchorconcepts are provided;

FIG. 45 is a view showing a display state in which the query conditionis initialized;

FIG. 46 is a view showing an example of display in which candidatesentences are provided;

FIG. 47 is a view of a window for selecting sentences and cases;

FIG. 48 is a view showing an example in which focusing is performedtwice;

FIG. 49 is a view showing an example of a query editing window in whichone line is added;

FIG. 50 is a view showing an example of display at the time ofalteration of a case element;

FIG. 51 is a view showing an example of display of query conditions inwhich a plurality of concepts are contained in a conditional sentence;

FIG. 52 is a view showing an example of display of results by aretrieval function of the information storage and retrieval system;

FIG. 53 is a view showing a flow of the concept and relation factinformation display routine;

FIG. 54 is a view showing a flow of the case where nodes are classifiedby kind in the concept and relation fact information display routine;

FIG. 55 is a view showing a flow of the case where view data aregenerated in the concept fact information display routine;

FIG. 56 is a view showing a flow of the case where view data of verbalfacts are generated in the concept fact information display routine;

FIG. 57 is a view showing a flow of the case where facts are grouped byrelational concepts to discriminate between view and non-view in theconcept fact information display routine;

FIG. 58 is a view showing a flow of the case where view data ofattribute facts are generated in the concept fact information displayroutine;

FIG. 59 is a view showing a flow of the case where view positions aredetermined in the verbal fact display routine;

FIG. 60 is a view showing a flow of the case where view positions aredetermined in the verbal fact display routine;

FIG. 61 is a view showing a flow of the case where view positions ofstrings of characters for a preposition/postposition and a concept aredetermined in the verbal fact display routine;

FIG. 62 is a view showing a flow of the case where view positions aredetermined in the routine for displaying is-a relations and part-wholerelations between concepts and attribute facts;

FIG. 63 is a view showing a flow of the routine for displaying factinformation of verbal concepts;

FIG. 64 is a view showing a flow of the routine for displaying factinformation of attribute concepts;

FIG. 65 is a view showing a flow of the case where view data aregenerated in the routine for displaying fact information of attributeconcepts;

FIG. 66 is a view showing a flow of the query editing routine;

FIG. 67 is a view showing a flow of the query editing routine;

FIG. 68 is a view showing a flow of the query editing routine;

FIG. 69 is a view showing a flow of the query editing routine;

FIG. 70 is a view showing a flow of the query editing routine;

FIG. 71 is a view showing a flow of the query editing routine; and

FIG. 72 is a view showing a flow of the query editing routine.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The structure and operation of the system will be outlined below withreference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a system arrangement of an information storage and retrievalsystem according to an embodiment of the present invention. The systemcomprises a control unit 201, a main memory 205, magnetic disk units206, a display unit 202, a keyboard 203 and a mouse 204. The systempermits inputting of significant information into a knowledge base(which is stored in the magnetic disk units 206 or the like), storage ofspecific information or knowledge and retrieval thereof. Data are readfrom the knowledge base (stored in the magnetic disk units 206) andmemorized in the main memory 205. Using the display unit 202, thekeyboard 203 and the mouse 204, information (concerning concepts,relations and facts) registered in the knowledge base is requested as anobject to be displayed, so that the retrieval result is displayed on thedisplay unit 202. The knowledge base has Concept Network data asrepresented according to a predetermined representation model, that is,information concerning templates, information concerning conceptdictionaries and information concerning input facts and queries. Theknowledge base is stored in a text file.

The operation of the system will be outlined below by referring to FIGS.9 through 28 (which show the data structure in the inside of thesystem), FIGS. 7, 8 and 29 through 52 (which show examples of displayeddata) and FIGS. 53 through 72 (which show flow PAD.

Data expressing fact information are generated by referring to knowledgestored in the memory. The knowledge contains:

1) concept data,

2) template data,

3) relation data, and

4) fact data.

The structures of these data will be described below. Referring to FIG.3, text-form information stored in the knowledge base 309 is expanded onthe main memory through a Concept Network Manager 307 and managed as adata structure according to a polynomial relation model.

The information is managed under ID data. The concept and relation IDdata, the template ID data and the fact ID data are stored in a nodemanagement table (not shown), a template management table (not shown)and a fact management table (not shown), respectively. "Node" usedherein is a general term for concepts and relations. In the following,sequencing of significant information will be described below.

5) sequencing of significant information

In this embodiment, "case link" (significant information) is classifiedinto "attribute object (AO) case" and "attribute value (AV) case" byattribute concepts and classified into eleven, i.e., "time (TI) case","agent (A) case", "collection in (CI) case", "recipient (R) case","object (0) case", "collection from (CF) case", "collection to (CT)case", "reason (W) case", "instrument (I) case", "purpose (U) case" and"quantity (Q) case", by verbal concepts.

Firstly, the data structure of concept and fact information for aconcept "Taro Hitachi" is shown in FIG. 9. A concept table 902 comprisesa node ID 903 for the concept "Taro Hitachi", a pointer 905 for a nametable list, a pointer 908 for a super-concept table, a pointer 911 for asub-concept table, a pointer 912 for a whole-concept table, a pointer913 for a part-concept table, a pointer 915 for a template informationtable, and a pointer 955 for a fact information table. A pointer 901from a node management table is connected to the concept table.

The name table 906 stores a string of characters "Taro Hitachi". Ifanother expression, for example, "Hitachi, T." is registered as asynonym, another name table may be used so that the string of characters"Hitachi, T." can be stored. That is, the given concept can be stored asthe two names, "Taro Hitachi" and "Hitachi, T.".

The super-concept table 909 stores "person" 910. This shows that"person" is a super concept for "Taro Hitachi". Each of the pointer 911for the sub-concept table, the pointer 912 for the whole-concept tableand the pointer for the part-concept table is NULL. This shows that"Taro Hitachi" has no sub-concept, no whole-concept and no part-conceptin the knowledge base.

In the management of templates in template information tables 916, 921and 926, templates in which the concept can be expressed as agent (A)case 917, recipient (R) case 922, attribute object (AO) case 927 or thelike are classified by cases. In this embodiment, templates in which theconcept "Taro Hitachi" can-be expressed as agent (A) case are templatesidentified by ID data 5, 14, 36, etc. Templates in which the concept"Taro Hitachi" can be expressed as recipient (R) case are templatesidentified by ID data 27, etc. Templates in which the concept "TaroHitachi" can be expressed as attribute object (AO) case are templatesidentified by ID data 8, etc.

In the management of fact information in fact information tables 956,961 and 966, facts really expressed by the concept are classified bycases in the same manner as in template information. In this embodiment,facts in which the concept "Taro Hitachi" is expressed as agent (A) case956 are facts identified by ID data 26, 64, 85, etc. Facts in which theconcept "Taro Hitachi" is expressed, as recipient (R) case 962 are factsidentified by ID data 215, etc. Facts in which the concept "TaroHitachi" is expressed as attribute object (AO) case 967 are factsidentified by ID data 29, etc.

Secondly, the data structure of template information for a verbalconcept "take" is shown in FIG. 11. A template table 1102 comprises atemplate ID data 1103, a node ID data 1104 for the verbal concept, apointer 1110 for a case constraint table, a pointer 1145 for a fact-idtable, and pointers 1150 and 1155 for pattern tables. A pointer 1101from the template management table is connected to the template table.

The fact-id table 1146 stores ID data for facts expressed by the verbalconcept. In this embodiment, facts to be retrieved are facts identifiedby ID data 26, 64, etc. Case constraint tables 1111, 1114, 1117 and 1120are composed of cases, such as agent (A) case 1112, expressing themeaning of the verbal concept, and pointers 1130, 1133, 1136 and 1140for case slot filler tables to manage concepts defining the cases. Inthis embodiment, significant information for the verbal concept "take"is classified into agent (A) case 1112, object (O) case 1115, time (TI)case 1118 and collection in (CI) case 1121. Concepts providing thesecases are "person" 1132 in the agent (A) case, "degree" 1135 in theobject (O) case, "time" 1138 in the time (TI) case and "organization"1142 in the collection in (CI) case.

The pattern table is maintained so that significant information for afact can be displayed so as to be easy to understand when the fact isexpressed in the form of a sentence. Patterns for verbal facts areclassified into "active" and "passive". The former is a pattern styleadapted for use of the agent (A) case as a formal subject. The latter isa pattern style adapted for use of the object (O) case or the recipient(R) case as a formal subject. In the drawing, the verbal concept "take"has agent (A) case and object (O) case as significant information.Accordingly, there are two patterns, i.e., pattern 1151 using the agent(A) case as a formal subject and pattern 1155 using the object (O) caseas a formal subject. The pointer 1158 for the pattern using therecipient (R) case as a formal subject is NULL.

In the pattern table 1151 using the agent (A) case as a formal subject,the sequence of cases and verbal concepts and the character strings ofprepositions and postpositions added to the cases and concepts aremanaged. When, for example, a Japanese template "hito ga toki ni gakuiwo soshiki de shutokusuru" (in English, "person takes degree atorganization in time") is given, "ga", "wo" and "ni" are postpositivelyadded to the concept "hito (person)" in the agent (A) case, the concept"gakui (degree)" in the object (O) case and the concept "toki (time)" inthe time (TI) case. When, for example, an English template "person takesdegree in time" is given, "in" is prepositively added to the concept"time" in the time (TI) case but nothing is added to the concept"person" in the agent (A) case and the concept "degree" in the object(O) case. That is, though a given case is used in one sense, it can bethought of that a postposition may be added to the concept expressingthe case in Japanese but a preposition may be added to the concept inEnglish and that neither postposition nor preposition may be addedthereto. The judgment as to whether addition of preposition/postpositionis required varies according to the language used. For the purpose ofpreserving the pattern information regardless of the language, a set ofprepositions and postpositions is stored for each case. In thisembodiment, preposition/postposition tables 1161, 1166, 1171, 1176 and1181 are allocated in the order of agent case 1161, time case 1167,object case 1172, collection in case 1177 and relation 1182, so thatthese are displayed in this order. Strings of characters forprepositions/postpositions added to concepts expressing cases andrelational concept are also stored in the preposition/postpositiontables. In this embodiment, prepositions "at" 1178 and "in" 1168 areadded to the concepts expressing the collection-in case and the timecase, respectively. On the other hand, the strings of characters 1164,1184, 1174, 1179 and 1169 for postpositions are all "-" This shows thatno postposition is added to each case. The strings of characters 1163,1183 and 1173 for postpositions are all "-". This shows that nopreposition is added thereto. Accordingly, when the agent case is usedas a formal subject, the template is displayed as "person takes degreein time". The pattern table 1156 using the object case as a formalsubject shows that facts are displayed in the order of object case 1191,relational concept 1199, agent case 1195, collection-in case 1197 andtime case 1193 and that prepositions added to concepts expressing thecases are "by" 1196, "at" 1198 and "in" 1194, respectively.

Thirdly, the data structure of concept information and fact informationfor a verbal concept "take" is shown in FIG. 10. A verbal concept table1002 comprises a node ID data 1103 for the verbal concept "get", apointer 1104 for a name table for relations, a pointer 1020 for asuper-concept table, a pointer 1023 for a sub-concept table, a pointer1025 for a template-id table, and a pointer 1030 for a fact-id table. Apointer 1001 from the node management table is connected to the verbalconcept table in the same manner as in the concept table. In thedrawing, the verbal concept "get" 1022 is a super concept for the verbalconcept "take". The drawing further shows that the ID data 1027 for thetemplate expressed by the verbal concept is 5 and that the ID data 1032for facts are 26 and so on.

The name table 1005 for relations comprises a String of characters 1006for "take", and a pointer 1010 for a name table for voice and tense. Theverbal concept has different names according to (active/passive) voiceand (past/present/future) tense. Accordingly, strings of characters fornames given to relations classified by a set of voice and tense aremanaged on the name table 1011 for voice and tense. When, for example,the voice is active and the tense is past, the name for "take" is givenby a string of characters "take" 1014 corresponding to the active voice1012 and the past tense 1013 in the first line of the name table 1011for voice and tense.

Fourthly, the data structure of fact information for a verbal factexpressed on the basis of concept, verbal concept and templateinformation preserved as described above is shown in FIGS. 12 and 13.FIG. 12 shows the data structure of the following fact:

"Taro Hitachi took doctorate at University B in 1975".

A fact information table 1202 comprises a fact ID data 1203, a templateID data 1204, a node ID data 1205 for a verbal concept, a tense data1206, and a pointer 1210 for a case information table. A pointer 1201from the fact management table is connected to the fact informationtable.

The case information table 1211 comprises a case name 1212, and apointer 1230 for a case filled concept table for the case. For example,"Taro Hitachi" 1232, "doctorate" 1235, "1975" 1238 and "University B"1241 are concepts expressing agent case 1212, object case 1215, timecase 1218 and collection-in case 1221, respectively.

When one case is expressed by a plurality of concepts, for example, whena fact "Taro Hitachi and Yoshio Tanaka established office inKobuchizawa" is written, a plurality of case filled concept tables areallocated for one case information table (see FIG. 13). In the drawing,case filled concept tables 1331 and 1334 for "Taro Hitachi" 1332 and"Yoshio Tanaka" 1335 are allocated for one case information table 1311expressing agent case 1302.

On the other hand, concept information, template information and factinformation for an attribute concept can be expressed by data structuressimilar to those for the verbal concept. For example, the data structureof template information for an attribute concept "nationality" is shownin FIG. 14. Like the template information for the verbal concept, atemplate table 1402 comprises a template ID data 1403, a node ID data1404 for the attribute concept, a pointer 1410 for a case constrainttable, a pointer 1435 for a fact-id table, and pointers 1440 and 1445for pattern tables. A pointer 1401 from the template management table isconnected to the template table.

The attribute concept always has two cases (attribute object case andattribute value case) as significant information. Accordingly, the caseconstraint tables 1411 and 1414 are allocated for the attribute objectcase 1412 and the attribute value case 1415. In the drawing, conceptsproviding these cases are "person" 1422 in the attribute object case and"nation" 1425 in the attribute value case.

The attribute fact pattern is classified into two, namely, object andvalue. The former is a pattern using the attribute object case as aformal subject. The latter is a pattern using the attribute value caseas a formal subject. As described above, the attribute concept alwayshas two cases, i.e., attribute object case and attribute value case, assignificant information. Accordingly, the attribute concept has twopatterns which are referred to as pattern 1441 using the attributeobject case as a formal subject and pattern 1446 using the attributevalue case as a formal subject. In the pattern using the attributeobject case as a formal subject, the relational concept 1457, theattribute object case 1452, the complement 1467 and the attribute valuecase 1462 are allocated to the preposition/postposition tables 1456,1451, 1466 and 1461 in order. The word "complement" used herein means astring of characters for complementing the significant structure amongthe attribute concept and the two case slot fillers when an attributefact is expressed in the form of a sentence. In this embodiment, "of"and "is" are used as a preposition added to the concept of the attributeobject case and a complement, respectively. On the other hand, thestrings of characters 1458, 1459, 1454, 1469, 1463 and 1464 forprepositions/postpositions are all "-". This shows that theprepositions/postpositions are not added thereto. Accordingly, thetemplate using the attribute object case as a formal subject isexpressed as "nationality of person is nation".

The data structure of fact information for an attribute fact expressedon the basis of concept, attribute concept and template informationpreserved as described above is shown in FIG. 15. This drawing shows thedata structure of the following fact:

"nationality of Taro Hitachi is Japan".

Like the data structure of the verbal fact, the data structure comprisesa fact information table 1502, a fact ID data 1503, a template ID data1504, a node ID data 1505 for an attribute concept, a tense information1506, and a pointer 1510 for a case information table. A pointer 1501from the fact management table is connected to the fact informationtable.

Like the case information table for the verbal fact, the caseinformation table 1511 comprises a case 1512 expressing a fact, and apointer 1530 for a case filled concept table in the case. For example,the concepts expressing the attribute object case 1512 and the attributevalue case 1515 are "Taro Hitachi" and "Japan", respectively.

Fifthly, the sequencing of significant information will be describedbelow. When facts in fact information in which a concept is registeredare to be displayed in order of importance of the concept, theimportance of the case expressing a sense is required to be referred to.Therefore, sequencing of significant information is performed so thatthe information is memorized in the form of a list of binary trees.Specifically, sequencing of cases with respect to the verbal concept isperformed in order of agent case, object case, recipient case, . . . sothat the cases are stored in the list of binary trees. Sequencing ofcases with respect to the attribute concept is performed in order ofattribute object case and attribute value case so that the cases arestored in the list of binary trees. Hereinafter, the list is called"case priority list".

The display of fact information for a concept will be described below asa first embodiment according to the display method of the presentinvention. A method of generating display data by referring to factinformation for a concept stored in a memory will be described below.

When a user clicks a concept in a node tree and then selects an itemfrom a function list in a pop-up menu displayed, a fact window isdisplayed.

For example, a fact window (see FIG. 7) for a concept "Taro Hitachi" isdisplayed as follows. When a user clicks a concept "Taro Hitachi" in thedisplayed node tree through a mouse in step 5300 (see FIG. 53), thesystem takes a mouse event in step 5310 and detects a node ID data of anode corresponding to the clicked area in step 5320. Then, in step 5330,the kind of the node is judged by inquiring of the knowledge base in theConcept Network Manager on the basis of the node ID data detected in thestep 5320. In step 5340, a pop-up menu corresponding to the kind of thenode thus judged is displayed. In step 5350, the user selects an itemfrom a function menu displayed as the pop-up menu and then the situationof the routine goes to step 5400. In step 5410 (see FIG. 54), a judgmentis made as to whether the fact window required has been alreadydisplayed. When the window has not been displayed yet, fact informationin which nodes have been registered is extracted from the knowledge baseaccording to the kind of the node judged in the step 5330, to therebygenerate display data. In this embodiment, the kind of the node isconcept, so that the situation of the routine goes to step 5500.

Initially, in step 5510, a list of fact ID data for verbal fact to bedisplayed and a total number counter are initialized and, in step 5515,a list of fact ID data for attribute fact to be displayed and a totalnumber counter are initialized.

In step 5520, a case which is a head data is picked up from a casepriority list for a verbal concept. The data is agent case. The pointerof the list is not NULL, so that the situation of the routine goes tostep 5525. In this step, a judgment is made as to whether there is anyverbal fact accumulated as agent case, while tracing the pointer 901(see FIG. 9) from the node management table to the concept table for theconcept and the pointer 955 to the fact information table on the basisof the node ID data for the concept "Taro Hitachi". There is some factin which "Taro Hitachi" is registered in the agent case, so that thesituation of the routine goes to step 5600.

Then, in step 5610 (see FIG. 56), the case management table 1602 isallocated (see FIG. 16) so that the pointer 1601 from the fact windowtable is connected to the case management table.

Then, a view table 1604 for fact is generated to store information todisplay a fact therein, so that the pointer 1603 from the casemanagement table is connected to the view table 1604. The view table forfact comprises a fact ID data 1610, a template ID data 1609 of a verbalconcept for the fact, a tense 1608 of a relational concept, a relationalname 1607, a display/not-display flag, a positional data, and a pointerfor a view table for case. Counters provided correspondingly to thenumber of facts in which "Taro Hitachi" is registered as agent case areinitialized and then the situation of the routine goes to step 5620.There is some fact expressed by "Taro Hitachi", so that the situation ofthe routine goes to step 5625. In the step 5625, the fact ID data 972stored in the table 971 is referred to while tracing the pointer 970from the fact information table 956 for the agent case to the fact-idtable (see FIG. 9). Then, a list of binary trees is allocated soseparately that the fact ID data is stored as a head data in the list.Then, the fact ID data 975 in the next fact-id table 974 is referred toand stored as the next data in the list of binary trees. Thus, a list ofbinary trees of fact ID data for verbal facts in which "Taro Hitachi" isregistered as agent case is generated.

Then, in step 5630, a judgment is made as to whether the fact ID data inthe list of binary trees generated in the step 5625 is contained in thelist of fact ID data for the verbal fact to be displayed. In thisembodiment, there is no overlapped fact ID data, so that the situationof the routine goes to step 5640. In this step, the list of fact ID data(or the list obtained by excluding the fact ID data in step 5635 whenthere is any overlapped fact ID data) generated in the step 5625 isadded to the list of fact ID data for the fact to be displayed.

Then, in step 5645, the number of retrieved facts is added to thecounter expressing the total number of verbal facts.

Then, the situation of the routine goes to step 5650. In thisembodiment, the concept "Taro Hitachi" has no subconcept, so that thesituation of the routine goes to step 5680.

Then, in step 5685, verbal concept information, template ID data, factID data, tense information and so on are stored in a corresponding viewtable for fact on the basis of the list of binary trees. When, forexample, the fact identified by the fact ID data 85 is the third data inthe list of binary trees, the ID data is stored in the fact ID area 1610in the view table 1606 allocated as the third view table for fact (seeFIG. 16). Then, the pointer 1201 to a fact information table 1202corresponding to the fact ID data is traced by referring the factmanagement table (see FIG. 12). Further, template ID data and tenseinformation are respectively stored in the template ID area 1609 and thetense information area 1608 in the view table for fact by referring thetemplate ID data 1204 and the tense information 1206. The pointer to averbal concept table 1002 corresponding to the ID data by referring tothe node management table after referring to the verbal concept ID data1205 (see FIG. 10). The pointer 1004 from the table 1002 to a name tablefor relations is traced so that the name "take" 1006 relational to theverbal concept is referred-to. The relational name is stored in therelation name area 1607 in the view table 1606 for fact, whereafter thesituation of the routine goes back to the step 5680.

This procedure is repeated before the pointer of the list of binarytrees of the fact ID data for facts in which "Taro Hitachi" isregistered as agent case changes to NULL. Thus, a corresponding viewtable for fact is generated.

After the view table for fact with respect to agent case is generated asdescribed above, view tables for fact are generated in order of thepriority of cases, for example, in order of the object case, therecipient case, . . . .

The situation of the routine goes back to the step 5520, so that thestep 5525 is carried out with respect to the object case. Because theconcept "Taro Hitachi" has no fact registered as object case, thesituation of the routine goes back to the step 5520 without generationof the case management table for object case. Then, a case managementtable 1620 for recipient case is generated because the fact forrecipient case is registered (see FIG. 16). The view tables for factwith respect to verbal facts registered as respective cases areallocated as described above, whereafter the situation of the routinegoes back to the step 5535. The number of verbal facts is stored in thefact window table.

Then, the situation of the routine goes to step 5700 (see FIG. 57) inwhich the view tables for fact are classified into groups by verbalconcepts to reconstruct the list. Specifically, in step 5710, thepointer from the case management table to a view table for fact istraced (see FIG. 17). Because the pointer is not NULL, the situation ofthe routine goes to step 5720.

In this step, facts are classified into groups by verbal concepts.Initially, in step 5725, by referring to the verbal concept "take" inthe view table 1723 for fact, a judgment is made as to whether there isany case order table allocated for the verbal concept. Because there isno table allocated, the situation of the routine goes to step 5760. Thecase order table 1703 is allocated for the verbal concept so that thepointer 1702 from the case management table is connected to the table1703.

The case order table 1703 comprises a pointer 1716 to a view table for afact expressed by the same verbal concept, the number 1707 of the facts,and forward and backward pointers 1705 and 1706 between case ordertables and so on. Facts corresponding to the view table for fact towhich the pointer from the case order table is connected are displayedwhen the window is displayed initially.

In the display of fact information for the concept "Taro Hitachi" inthis embodiment, it is now assumed that the number of verbal factsregistered is larger than a threshold. In this case, a representativefact is automatically selected by the system and displayed. In thisembodiment, a method of generating view tables for fact in order ofaccumulation on the knowledge base to select facts in order of thetables is described.

A new view table 1717 for fact is allocated so that the pointer 1716from the case order table is connected to the view table 1717. Theverbal concept "graduate" is stored in an area 1704 corresponding to thecase order table 1703. Then, in step 5765, the display/not-display flagin the view table 1717 for fact is turned to "display". In step 5770,the number 1707 of facts expressed by the same verbal concept is added,whereafter the situation of the routine goes back to the step 5710.

The pointer 1725 to the next view table for fact is then traced todetect in step 5720 whether the verbal concept "graduate" 1727 in theview table 1726 for fact overlaps the verbal concept in the case ordertable allocated currently. Because the two concepts overlap each other,the situation of the routine goes to step 5770. In the step 5770, thenumber 1707 of facts in a corresponding case order table is added,whereafter the situation of the routine goes back to the step 5710.

In this embodiment, the number of verbal facts is larger than thethreshold. Accordingly, facts in the view table 1717 connected to thecase order table 1703 for the concept "graduate" are selected.

The pointer 1728 to the next view table for fact is further traced todetect in step 5720 whether the verbal concept "take" 1730 in the viewtable 1729 overlaps the verbal concept in the case order table allocatedcurrently. Because the verbal concept in the case order table is only"graduate" 1704, the situation of the routine goes to step 5760. In thestep 5760, a new case order table 1708 is allocated, so that the verbalconcept "take" 1730 in the view table 1729 for fact is stored in thecase order table 1708. Further, in the step 5760, thedisplay/not-display flag is turned to "display" and, in the step 5770,the number 1712 of facts is added. Further, a new view table 1720 forfact is allocated so that fact information is stored therein. Thepointer from the case order table 1719 is connected to the view table1720 for fact. Further, case order tables are connected by the forwardand backward pointers 1705 and 1706. This procedure is repeated togenerate case order tables and view tables for fact for initial display.

Here, the number of facts expressed by the same verbal concept is asfollows. The number of facts expressed by "graduate" is 3. The number offacts expressed by "take" is 2. The number of facts expressed by "build"is 19. Further, the last view table 1717 for fact for initial window inone verbal concept is connected to the case order table in the nextverbal concept by the pointer 1718. Facts to be displayed are thusclassified into groups and selected.

As another selection method, verbal concepts may be selected in theorder of the number of facts registered with respect to the verbalconcepts, in the order of frequency in use for reference or in thealphabetical order of name for verbal concepts. Facts classified by thesame verbal concept may be selected in the order of importance of casesregistered, in the order of the number of concepts registered in thecases, the order of frequency in use for reference or in thealphabetical order of name for concepts.

After facts to be displayed are selected as described above, in step5780, number temporarily effective in the fact window is given to eachfact. For example, the facts are numbered so that number "1" is given tothe fact selected by "graduate" 1704 and that number "4" obtained byadding the number (three) of facts expressed by "graduate" 1704 theretois given to the fact selected by "get" 1709.

Verbal facts are displayed in the verbal fact area in the form of asentence and, on the other hand, attribute facts in which is-a relation,part-whole relation and the concept are registered as attribute objectcase and attribute facts in which the concept is registered as attributevalue case are successively displayed in tabular form in the attributefact area.

Initially, in step 5540 (see FIG. 55), information of super conceptswith respect to the concept "Taro Hitachi" is extracted. Specifically,the pointer 901 (see FIG. 9) from the node management table to theconcept table for the concept "Taro Hitachi" and the pointer 908 to thesuper-concept table are traced on the basis of the node ID data for theconcept to thereby refer to the concept ID data 910 in the table 909.Then, the case management table 1802 is allocated so that the pointer1801 from the fact window table is connected to the case managementtable 1802. A flag "is-a" expressing is-a relation, instead of the case,is stored in the case area 1803. Then, the view table 1805 for fact isallocated so that the pointer 1804 from the case management table isconnected thereto. The view table for fact comprises attribute concepts,and other case slot fillers for attribute facts and so on. The is-arelation is a linkage relation which is different from the attributeconcept as a node. Accordingly, "subconcept-of" (or "is-a") 1806expressing a super-concept item name and "person" 1807 which is a superconcept are stored in the attribute concept area and the area of theconcept expressing the other attribute case, i.e., the attribute valuecase, respectively.

Then, in step 5575, a judgment is made as to whether there is anywhole-concept. When there is some whole-concept, in step 5550, a datafor displaying a fact is extracted from the list of binary trees in thesame manner as in the is-a relation. The item name used herein is"part-of". In this embodiment, there is no whole-concept in theknowledge base with respect to the concept "Taro Hitachi". Accordingly,the situation of the routine goes to step 5555.

In this step, a case as a head data in the case priority list forattribute concepts is obtained. The data is attribute object case.Because the pointer of the list is not NULL, the situation of theroutine goes to step 5560. A judgment is made as to whether there is anyattribute fact in which "Taro Hitachi" is registered as attribute objectcase. Because there is some fact, the situation of the routine goes tostep 5800. In step 5810 (See FIG. 58), the case management table 1909 isallocated so that the pointer 1908 from the case management table foris-a relations is connected to the case management table. Further,counters corresponding to the number of facts registered as attributeobject case in the case area 1910 are initialized and then the situationof the routine goes to step 5825.

In this step, a list of binary trees of fact ID data for facts in whichthe concept is registered as the case is generated in the same manner asin the verbal facts. When there is some fact ID data overlapping betweenthe list of fact ID data for the next attribute fact and the list ofbinary trees, the overlapping fact ID data is excluded in step 5835 andadded to the list of fact ID data for the fact to be displayed in step5840. In step 5845, the number of retrieved facts is added to thecounter expressing the number of attribute facts and then the situationof the routine goes to step 5850. As described above, there is howeverno part-concept with respect to "Taro Hitachi". Accordingly, thesituation of the routine goes to step 5880.

Then, in step 5885, attribute concept information, template ID, fact IDand so on are stored in a corresponding view table for fact on the basisof the list of binary trees, whereafter the situation of the routinegoes back to the step 5880.

After the view table for fact with respect to the attribute object caseis thus generated, the situation of the routine goes back to the step5520 in which the table with respect to the attribute value case isgenerated.

Then, the situation of the routine goes to step 5570 in which the numberof attribute facts is stored in the fact window table. The structure ofdata thus generated is shown in FIG. 19.

Then, the situation of the routine goes back to the step 5700 again (seeFIG. 57). In the step 5700, the view tables for fact are classified intogroups by attribute concepts to reconstruct the list. The structure ofdata classified into groups by attribute concepts is shown in FIG. 20.In FIG. 20, the number of facts to be displayed is smaller than thethreshold. Accordingly, all view tables for fact are allocated newly.

Then, view position information is generated. Specifically, informationconcerning the view position of facts and super- or whole-conceptstemporarily numbered in the step 5700 is generated in steps 5900 and6200. As a result, not only the position pointed by a pointing devicecan be detected in the fact window area but the area can be displayedreversally.

With respect to verbal facts, after the view position information isinitialized in step 5910 (see FIG. 59), the pointer of the fact windowtable and the pointer of the case management table are traced to referto patterns corresponding to the template ID in the head table in step5940. In the active pattern (see FIG. 11) with respect to "take"classified in the case order table for agent case, as described above,agent case 1162, the verbal concept 1182, object case 1172,collection-in case 1177 and time case 1167 are stored in order.

The case where view position information for the fact ID 85 is generatedwill be described as an example. As described above (see FIG. 12), it isnow assumed that "Taro Hitachi", "doctorate", "b 1975l " and "UniversityB" are registered in agent case, object case, time case andcollection-in case, respectively. The view table 2106 for case isallocated (see FIG. 21) so that the pointer from the view table 2104 forfact is connected thereto. Further, view tables 2107 for concept givencorrespondingly to the number of the case filled concepts are generatedso that the pointer 2108 from the view table 2106 for case is connectedthereto. In the fact, "Taro Hitachi" is a concept expressing agent caseand is stored in the view table for concept for agent case, whereafterthe situation of the routine goes to step 6000 (see FIG. 60).

When the pattern is referred to in step 6020 for setting the viewposition of the fact ID 85 for "take", the initial case is an agent caseand the situation of the routine goes to step 6100 (see FIG. 61). Instep 6110, a judgment is made as to whether there is any string ofcharacters for preposition in the case. Because there is no string ofcharacters, the situation of the routine goes to step 6125.

In this step, a judgment is made as to whether there are a plurality ofcase slot fillers. Because the case slot filler is only "Taro Hitachi"1232 (see FIG. 12), the situation of the routine goes to step 6065.After the view area of "Taro Hitachi" is set, the value of the width ofthe sentence is updated in step 6170. The view area is set by the widthof the string of characters and the height thereof (unit: dots) asrepresented by the expression:

X1, Y1, H1, W1!

in which X1 represents the X coordinate of the left end of therectangular character area for the string of characters "Taro Hitachi",Y1 represents the Y coordinate of the upper left thereof, H1 representsthe height of the character area, and W1 represents the width. Thevalues of X1 and Y1 show the fact start coordinates calculated on thebasis of the view area of a temporary number given to the fact to bedisplayed.

Then, the situation of the routine goes to step 6175 in which a judgmentis made as to whether there is any string of characters for postpositionin the case. Because the string of characters is "ga" 1164 (see FIG.11), the situation of the routine goes to step 6180. In this step, theview area of postposition is set in the same manner as the procedure offrom the step 6165 to the step 6170, whereafter the situation of theroutine goes back to the step 6010.

The view area of the string of characters in time case or the like iscalculated on the basis of the coordinates, the width of the string ofcharacters and the height thereof in the same manner as described above.

When there are a plurality of case slot fillers as shown in FIG. 13,that is, when a set of concepts is registered, a string of characters"SET" is put in the left of the string of characters for the set ofconcepts and then the string of characters including "SET" and the setof concepts is enclosed in parentheses to make the range of the set ofconcepts obvious (see FIG. 7). Not only the view areas of respectiveconcepts in the set of concepts are set in the procedure of from step6140 to step 6150 but the view area of the set of concepts as a whole isset in step 6155, so that relational information can be obtained even ifthe set of concepts is regarded as one concept.

When the case slot filler is an indefinite concept, "?" is put in theright of the string of characters for the concept. For example, the fact

"Taro Hitachi and Yoshio Tanaka or else set up office" is expressed asfollows.

(SET: Taro Hitachi; Yoshio Tanaka ?)

With respect to other cases, view tables for case and view tables forconcept are generated successively in the same manner as describedabove.

When the data to be displayed in the step 6020 (see FIG. 60) is a verbalconcept, the situation of the routine goes to step 6030. The verbalconcept is accompanied with tense information. Accordingly, a string ofcharacters for the verb is generated on the basis of voice and tenseinformation. Because the verb is "active" and "past", "took" 1014 isobtained by referring to the voice and tense name table (see FIG. 10).Then, the view area of the string of characters is set in steps 6030 and6040.

The maximum width of the sentence is updated in the procedure of fromstep 6060 to step 6080 so that one fact can be displayed in one line.

A verbal fact is expressed in the form of a sentence and, on the otherhand, an attribute fact is expressed in the form of a table.Specifically, an attribute fact expressed by a concept is constituted,as attribute items, by

1) is-a relation,

2) part-whole relation,

3) attribute concept,

and constituted, as concept items, by

4) super-concept,

5) whole-concept,

6) other case slot filler for fact.

Accordingly, the attribute fact is different from the verbal fact inthat the attribute fact requires no preposition/postposition. However,an attribute item area and a concept item area must be setpreliminarily.

After the view position information is initialized in step 6210 (seeFIG. 62), the pointer of the view table for fact and the pointer of thecase management table are traced successively to generate a string ofcharacters for attribute item on the basis of information such asattribute concept ID stored in the view table for fact and measure theview width of the string of characters in step 6225. Then, in step 6230,the coordinates of the view start point of the string of characters areset.

In this embodiment, the view width of "subconcept-of" (or "is-a") 2015which is an item name for is-a relation is measured. Then, the pointer2005 of the case management table is traced (see FIG. 20) to generate anitem name on the basis of the attribute concept of an attributeregistered as an attribute object case. However, the attribute fact isnot accompanied with any preposition/postposition, so that the sense ofthe case cannot be understood easily. Therefore, a string of charactersfor the attribute concept of-a fact registered as an attribute objectcase is enclosed by ">" to generate a new string of characters and setthe coordinates of the view start point. When, for example, theattribute concept is "nationality" 2019, the string of characters isexpressed as ">nationality>" or simply "nationality". Then, the viewwidth of the string of characters is measured and then the situation ofthe routine goes back to the step 6220. The string of characters for theattribute object case is generated thus to measure the view widththereof.

Further, the pointer 2009 of the case management table is traced togenerate an item name on the basis of the attribute concept for anattribute registered as an attribute value case. To show that theattribute value case and the attribute object case are relative to eachother, a string of characters obtained by putting "of" in the right ofthe string of characters for the attribute concept is regarded as anattribute item name and then the view width of the string of charactersis measured. The maximum view width of the attribute item is thus setand stored separately in step 6235.

Then, the situation of the routine goes to step 6240. In step 6250, thepointer of the case management table is traced to set the view area ofthe concept item in the same manner as in the attribute item. The stringof characters for the concept "person" 2016 which is a super-conceptwith respect to "Taro Hitachi" stored in the view table for fact isregarded as a view string of characters and then the width thereof ismeasured. Further, the coordinates of the upper left of the rectangularform in the view area of the concept item are calculated on the basis ofthe view width of the attribute item and set. Then, the situation of theroutine goes back to the step 6245.

Then, the pointer 2005 of the case management table is traced so thatthe concept of the attribute value case which is the other case definedby an attribute with respect to the attribute registered as an attributeobject case is given as an item name to measure the width of the stringof characters. For example, the concept "Japan" corresponds to the viewitem ">nationality>" (or "nationality"). Further, the coordinates of theupper left of the view area are set. The same procedure as describedabove is applied to the attribute value case. Thus, the maximum viewwidth of the concept item is set and stored separately.

When there are a plurality of super- or whole-concepts or when a set ofconcepts is registered in the other case for attribute, the view area isset while regarding the number of concepts as the number of displaylines.

After the view positions of verbal facts and attribute facts are set asdescribed above, the facts are displayed according to the positioninformation in step 5450. In FIG. 7, "subconcept-of" (or "is-a") 712 inthe area of the attribute item name and "person" 713 in the area of theconcept item name are displayed as superconcept information with respectto "Taro Hitachi" in the attribute view area. In the fact "nationalityof Taro Hitachi is Japan" in which "Taro Hitachi" is registered as anattribute object case, ">nationality>" (or "nationality") 714 and"Japan" 715 are displayed in the area of the attribute item name and thearea of the concept item name, respectively. In the fact "Taro Hitachiis designer of Katagiri house" in which "Taro Hitachi" is registered asan attribute value case, "<designer<" (or "designer-of") 718 and"Katagiri's residence" 719 are displayed.

Displaying of verbal facts expressed by concepts and displaying of is-arelation, part-whole relation and attribute facts can be performed onthe basis of the view position information set as described above.

In the following, the display of fact information for verbal conceptswill be described as a second embodiment according to the display methodof the invention.

The fact information is displayed by clicking a verbal concept in aconcept tree through a mouse and selecting a menu from a list offunctions expressed as a pop-up menu in the same manner as in thedisplay of a view window for fact with respect to concepts. FIG. 29shows an interactive display at browsing. The verbal concept "take" 2901displayed in the node tree is clicked through a mouse and the procedureof from the step 5310 to the step 5350 is carried out in the same manneras in the method for displaying fact information for concept (see FIG.53), whereafter the situation of the routine goes to step 6300. The viewwindow 2902 for fact with respect to "take" is displayed according tothe display data generated. The method for displaying fact informationfor verbal concepts is similar to the method for displaying the viewwindow (see FIG. 7) for fact with respect to concepts in the verbalarea, except the method of referring to verbal facts. The method ofreferring to verbal facts will be described below.

In step 6310 (see FIG. 63), a list of fact ID data to be displayed and acounter expressing the total number of verbal facts are initialized.Then, in step 6320, a judgment is made as to whether there is any verbalfact registered with respect to the verbal concept "take". When there issome verbal fact, in step 6330, a list of binary trees is generated sothat fact ID data are stored therein. Further, the case management tableis allocated so that the pointer from the view window table for fact isconnected thereto.

In step 6345, the view table for fact is allocated so that the pointerfrom the case management table is connected thereto on the basis of thelist of binary trees of fact ID data. In step 6350, fact ID, templateID, verbal concept information and tense information are stored bysuccessively referring to the fact information. In step 6355, the caseorder table is allocated so that the pointer from the case managementtable is connected thereto. Then, in step 6360, number temporarily usedin the view window for fact is given, whereafter the situation of theroutine goes back to the step 6340.

In this embodiment, data to be displayed are generated by successivelyreferring facts in the order of accumulation on the knowledge base.Accordingly, there is no sorting on the basis of case priority.Therefore, the view table for fact designated by the case managementtable coincides with the view table for fact designated by the caseorder table. As another method, sorting may be performed in the order ofimportance of the cases registered, in the order of frequency in use forreference or in the alphabetical order of name for case slot fillers.

FIG. 30 shows a view window for fact in which facts expressed by "take"are sorted in the order of the number of cases. The fact "Taro Hitachitook doctorate at University B in 1975" 3001 corresponding to the number"1" is expressed by four cases, namely, the concept "Taro Hitachi"expressed by agent case, the concept "1975" expressed by time case, theconcept "doctorate" expressed by object case and the concept "UniversityB" expressed by collection-in case. The next fact "Taro Hitachi tookbachelor of engineering in 1970" 3002 is expressed by three cases. Eachof the fact "Yoshio Tanaka took license of architect" 3003 and thefollowing facts is expressed by two cases. Facts may be displayed bysuch sorting method.

The setting of view areas for respective strings of characters in thewindow is performed in the same manner as the setting of the verbal areain the view window for fact with respect to concepts.

The view window for fact with respect to verbal concepts is displayed onthe basis of the display data thus generated.

The display of fact information for verbal concepts can be performed asdescribed above.

In the following, the display of fact information for attribute conceptswill be described as a third embodiment according to the display methodof the invention.

The fact information is displayed by clicking a mouse in an attributeconcept in a node tree and selecting a desired item from a list offunctions expressed as a pop-up menu in the same manner as in thedisplay of fact information for concepts. FIG. 31 shows an interactivedisplay at browsing. The attribute concept "nationality" 3101 displayedin the node tree is selected by clicking the mouse and the procedure offrom the step 5310 to the step 5350 is carried out in the same manner asin the method for displaying fact information for concepts (see FIG.53), whereafter the situation of the routine goes to step 6300. The viewwindow 3102 for fact with respect to "nationality" is displayedaccording to the display data thus generated.

The method for displaying the window is similar to the method fordisplaying the view window for fact with respect to concepts in theattribute area, except the method of referring to attribute facts andthe method of generating strings of characters to be displayed inrespective lines.

The method of referring to facts will be described below. In step 6410(see FIG. 64), a list of fact ID data for facts to be displayed and acounter expressing the total number of facts are initialized. Then, instep 6420, a judgment is made as to whether there is any attribute factregistered with respect to the attribute concept "nationality". Whenthere is some fact, a list of binary trees is generated in step 6430 sothat fact ID data are stored therein. Further, the case management tableis allocated so that the pointer from the view window table for fact isconnected thereto.

In step 6445, the view table for fact is allocated on the basis of thelist of binary trees of fact ID data, so that the pointer from the casemanagement table is connected thereto. In step 6450, fact ID, templateID, attribute concept information and tense information are stored byreferring to the fact information. Then, in step 6455, case order tablesare allocated so that the pointer from the case management table isconnected thereto. Then, in step 6460, numbers temporarily used in theview window for fact are respectively given to the facts, whereafter thesituation of the routine goes back to the step 6440.

In this embodiment, data to be displayed are generated by successivelyreferring facts in the order of accumulation on the knowledge base.Accordingly, there is no sorting. As another method, sorting of factsmay be performed in the order of the number of concepts expressingattribute object case or attribute value case, in the order of frequencyin use for reference or in the alphabetical order of name for concepts.

The method of generating strings of characters to be generated will bedescribed below.

In the display of fact information in the form of a table, the factwindow for concepts is generated so that attribute item name and conceptitem name are respectively arranged in the first and second columns. Onthe contrary, the fact window for attribute concepts is generated sothat concept name registered as attribute object case and concept nameregistered as attribute value case are respectively arranged in thefirst and second columns.

In step 6510 (see FIG. 65), position information for data to bedisplayed is initialized. Then, in the procedure of from step 6510 tostep 6530, the width and height of the character string with respect toconcepts expressing attribute object case are measured to set thecoordinates of the view start point. Then, in step 6535, the width ofthe first column, that is, the width of the column of conceptsexpressing attribute object case, is stored. Then, in the procedure offrom step 6540 to step 6550, the view area for concepts expressingattribute object case is set and, at the same time, the width and heightof the character string is measured to set the view area. Thus, data tobe displayed are generated.

FIG. 32 shows a fact window in which facts expressed by the attributeconcept "nationality" are sorted by attribute value case. In thisdrawing, the fact "nationality of Taro Hitachi is Japan" is expressed byrespectively displaying "Taro Hitachi" 3201 and "Japan" 3205 in thefirst and second columns of No. "1" line. Like this, "Yoshio Tanaka"3202 and "Reiko Sagawa" 3203 are displayed with the fact that thenationality thereof is "Japan" 3206, 3207. The concept expressingattribute value case in No. "5" is "United States" 3208, so that othernational names than "Japan" are considered to be arranged after thisline. Facts may be displayed by such sorting method.

The setting of view areas for respective strings of characters in thewindow is performed in the same manner as the setting of attribute areasin the fact window for concepts.

The fact window for attribute concepts is displayed on the basis of thedisplay data thus generated.

The display of fact information for attribute concepts can be performedas described above.

In the following, the additional display of fact information notdisplayed in the fact window for concepts in which fact informationautomatically selected by the system has been displayed will bedescribed as a fourth embodiment according to the display method of theinvention.

An item is selected from a list of functions displayed as a pop-up menuby clicking a mouse in a number area in the window, so that factsexpressed by the same verbal concept as a fact corresponding to thenumber selected are displayed in a same relation window. FIG. 33 showsan interactive display at browsing.

A view table for fact in which the view area including the positionpointed by clicking the mouse is set is retrieved by detecting theposition pointed by clicking the mouse and tracing the pointer from thefact window table. After the retrieval of the table, a case managementtable and a case order table connected to the table by the pointer areretrieved.

For example, the display of the same relation from the fact window 3301for "Taro Hitachi" in FIG. 33 is performed as follows. When the number"4" 3302 is selected by clicking the mouse, a display area correspondingto the number "4" is retrieved by tracing the pointer from the factwindow table. As a result, a view table 2104 for fact (see FIG. 21)corresponding to the fact "Taro Hitachi took doctorate at University Bin 1975" identified by the number is detected. With respect to the casemanagement table, a case management table 2101 for agent case isselected. Because "Taro Hitachi" in the fact is a concept expressingagent case, the pointer from the case management table for agent case tothe view table for fact is traced to judge whether there is any factexpressed by "take" except this fact in fact view tables which have beengenerated for displaying facts. Because the view table 2102 for facthaving the fact ID of 171 is fitted now, fact information is referred toon the basis of the fact ID.

View data with respect to the fact "Taro Hitachi took doctorate atUniversity B in 1975" which has been displayed in the fact window andthe fact "Taro Hitachi took bachelor of engineering at University A in1970" which has been not displayed are generated so that the samerelation window is displayed. FIG. 34 shows an initial state of the samerelation window for "take" registered with "Taro Hitachi" as a conceptexpressing agent case. A button 3401 in the left of the fact "TaroHitachi took doctorate at University B in 1975" 3403 indicates that thefact is in a display state in the fact window. A button 3402 in the leftof the fact "Taro Hitachi took bachelor of engineering at University Ain 1970" indicates that the fact is in a not-display state.

As another means for indicating the display/not-display state, a meansfor indicating the state by icon, a means for indicating the state bychanging the view condition of the number, or the like, may be employed.

A fact to be additionally displayed can be selected by clicking a buttonin the same relation window through the mouse. FIG. 35 shows the samerelation window displayed when the button 3501 in the left of the fact"Taro Hitachi took bachelor of engineering at University A in 1970" isselected.

When a desired item is selected from the menu by judging a fact from theposition pointed by clicking the mouse, view data for the fact to beadditionally displayed are generated. Specifically, the case managementtable and the case order table are traced so that a new view table 2204for fact is allocated to follow the view table 2202 which has beenalready allocated and that the pointer 2203 from the last view table forfact is connected thereto (see FIG. 22). After fact information to beadded is stored in the view table for fact, view tables for concept areallocated in the order of the view pattern so that the pointer 2205 fromthe view table for fact is connected thereto. A list of binary trees ofcase slot fillers 2206 and 2207 is allocated so that concept informationexpressing the case is stored therein. Further, the display/not-displayflag turned to "display" is stored.

Then, view position information for verbal facts is reconstructed sothat the fact "Taro Hitachi took bachelor of engineering at University Ain 1970" to be additionally displayed can be displayed in the next linejust under the currently displayed fact "Taro Hitachi took doctorate atUniversity B in 1975" expressed by the same verbal concept. For example,the Y coordinate of the fact 3606 identified by the number "6" 3603 isreplaced by the Y coordinate of the fact displayed one line below (seeFIG. 36).

The fact window is re-displayed on the basis of the view positioninformation thus reconstructed. FIG. 36 shows the fact window which isdisplayed additionally. The fact window is re-displayed so that the factto be inserted in the fact window is displayed just under the factidentified by the number "4" 3601 after the number "5" 3602 is given tothe fact to be inserted and that facts which have been described aresuccessively moved down by one line. The additional display of factinformation can be performed as described above.

In the following, the display of the fact window for concept andsubconcept will be described as a fifth embodiment according to thedisplay method of the invention.

The window used herein is a fact window for a concept containing asubconcept among concepts registered in the knowledge base. The windowis displayed by clicking a concept in a concept tree through a mouse andselecting a desired item from a list of functions displayed as a pop-upmenu. FIG. 37 shows the fact window for concept and subconcept.

In the procedure of from step 5620 to step 5645 (see FIG. 56), a list offact ID data for verbal facts expressed by the concept "person" isgenerated. In the procedure of from step 5650 to step 5675, a list offact ID data for verbal facts relative to subconcepts of the concept"person" is generated. The method for grouping facts by relationalconcepts, the method for selecting the display/not-display state and themethod for generating view data for verbal facts are similar to thoseused for concepts containing no subconcept.

Then, in the procedure from step 5820 to step 5845 (see FIG. 58), a listof fact ID data for attribute facts expressed by the concept "person" isgenerated. In the procedure of from step 5850 to step 5875, a list offact ID data for attribute facts expressed by subconcepts of the concept"person" is generated. The method for storing fact information issimilar to that used for concepts containing no subconcept. Then, instep 5450, facts expressed by the concept "person" and subconceptsthereof are displayed in the fact window on the basis of view data inthe same manner as in the fact window for concepts containing nosubconcept.

With respect to the attribute fact area, facts expressed by super- orwhole-concepts of the concept "person", the concept "person" registeredas attribute object and attribute value cases and sub- or part-conceptsthereof are displayed.

The fact window for "person" is displayed on the basis of the view datathus generated. In FIG. 37, "Yoshio Tanaka" 3701 and "Taro Hitachi" aresubconcepts of "person", so that the fact window for attribute conceptis displayed by selecting facts having the subconcepts registered.

With respect to attribute facts expressed by subconcepts, ellipses ". .. " 3703 and the like are displayed because the contents of the factscannot be perfectly expressed by the attribute item and the conceptitem. The fact window for attribute concepts is displayed by clicking astring of characters in the attribute item through a mouse and selectinga desired item from a list of functions displayed as a pop-up menu.

A method using a table composed of three items consisting of an item forregistered concepts, an attribute item and an item for conceptsregistered in another case to display the table in the attribute factarea may be used as another method.

The display of fact information for concepts and subconcepts can beperformed as described above.

In the following, the browsing of concepts and subconcepts displayed inthe fact window will be described as a sixth embodiment according to thedisplay method of the invention.

A fact window corresponding to a concept pointed by a mouse is displayedby selecting a desired item from a list of functions displayed as apop-up menu through clicking the mouse in one of concepts displayed inthe fact window for concept, in the fact window for verbal concept or inthe fact window for attribute concept.

FIG. 38 shows a display in which a concept "Taro Hitachi" is pointed ina fact window for a verbal concept "take". FIG. 39 shows a display inwhich a concept "Taro Hitachi" is pointed in a fact window for anattribute concept "nationality". In FIG. 38, a concept 37 Taro Hitachi"3802 is pointed in a fact window 3801 for "take". In FIG. 39, a concept"Taro Hitachi" 3902 is pointed in a fact window 3901 for "nationality".In each of FIGS. 38 and 39, a fact window 3803, 3903 for "Taro Hitachi"is displayed. FIG. 40 shows a display in which a concept "Japan" 4002 ispointed in a fact window 4001 for a concept "Taro Hitachi". In FIG. 40,a fact window 4003 for "Japan" is further displayed.

A fact window for a desired verbal concept is displayed by selecting anitem from a list of functions displayed as a pop-up menu throughclicking a mouse in a verbal concept displayed in a verbal fact area ina fact window for concept or in a fact window for verbal concept. When,for example, a verbal concept "graduate" 3804 is pointed in a factwindow 3803 for a concept "Taro Hitachi" in FIG. 38, a fact window for"graduate" can be displayed.

A fact window for a desired attribute concept is displayed by selectingan item from a list of functions displayed as a pop-up menu throughclicking a mouse in an attribute concept displayed in an attribute factarea in a fact window for concept. That is, FIG. 39 also shows a displayin which an attribute concept "nationality" 3904 is pointed in a factwindow 3903 for a concept "Taro Hitachi".

The verbal fact area and attribute fact area in the fact window forconcept, the view area in the fact window for verbal concept and theview area in the fact window for attribute concept have view areas forstrings of characters displayed, respectively. Accordingly, a concept ora relational concept displayed in a view area can be detected byretrieving the view area containing a position pointed by clicking amouse, in the same manner as in the case where a concept or a relationalconcept is pointed from a node tree by clicking a mouse. The kind of theconcept or relational concept thus detected is judged to inquire of thewindow management table whether there is any fact window for the conceptor relational concept. When some fact window has been already displayed,a message is displayed in the same manner as in the step 5460. Whenthere is no fact window displayed, view data are generatedcorrespondingly to the judgment in the same manner as in the procedurefollowing after the step 5420. When the kind is judged to be a concept,a fact window for the concept is displayed on the basis of the viewdata. When the kind is judged to be a verbal concept, a fact window forthe verbal concept is displayed on the basis of the view data. When thekind is judged to be an attribute concept, a fact window for theattribute concept is displayed on the basis of the view data. The methodof generating the view data is based on the method in the fact window.

After the window management table is allocated, information in a factwindow displayed newly is stored in the table and managed therein.

The browsing of concepts and relational concepts displayed in a factwindow can be performed as described above.

In the following, the full-sentence display of facts displayed in a factwindow for a concept will be described as a seventh embodiment accordingto the display method of the invention.

The full sentence of a fact identified by a number is displayed in afact window in a sentence by selecting an item from a list of functionsdisplayed as a pop-up menu through clicking a mouse in a number area ina fact window for a concept. FIG. 41 shows a display in which the fullsentence of a fact is displayed in a fact window for a concept "TaroHitachi".

A view table for fact in which a view area including a position pointedby clicking a mouse is set is retrieved by tracing the pointer from thefact window table through detecting the position pointed by clicking themouse. At the same time, a case management table and a case order tableconnected to the view table for fact containing the view area by thepointer are retrieved.

The full sentence of a fact selected from a fact window for a concept"Taro Hitachi" in FIG. 41 is displayed as follows. When a temporarynumber "4" 4101 is pointed by clicking a mouse, the selected fact "TaroHitachi took doctorate at University B in 1975" is detected in the samemanner as in the same relation window.

In the full-sentence display, the view area and the view position of thefact window in a sentence are limited so that the full sentence can bedisposed in a suitable place on a display. In this point, thefull-sentence display is different from the display of verbal facts.

Information concerning prepositions, case slot fillers and postpositionsstored in a view table for concept is referred to by tracing the pointerof the view table for a selected fact. In FIG. 20, the width of a stringof characters "Taro Hitachi" in agent case which is the first case ismeasured. The maximum width of the view area preliminarily set isconsidered as surplus width, so that the width of the string ofcharacters is compared with the surplus width. When the width is smallerthan the maximum width, the view area is set so that the string ofcharacters in agent case is put in the head of the first line. At thesame time, the surplus width is updated to be a value obtained bysubtracting the width of the string of characters from the maximumwidth. Then, information concerning a preposition, a case slot fillerand a postposition in the time case is referred to. The width the stringof characters for the concept "1975" is compared with the surplus widthto set the view area. The respective widths of the strings of charactersin object case and collection-in case are successively compared with thecurrent marginal width in the same manner as described above.

In the fact, the width of the string of characters "at University B"3403 in collection-in case is larger than the surplus width.Accordingly, the first line is finished at object case (with respect towhich the view position has been already determined) just prior tocollection-in case, that is, a new line is begun at collection-in caseto set the view area.

When a set of concepts (set concepts), that is, a plurality of concepts,are registered in one case, the following three methods are used forgenerating strings of characters to be displayed.

The first method is applied to the case where the width of a combinationof a preposition, a string of characters "SET" expressing the start of aset of concepts and the first concept thereof, or the width of acombination of a preposition, a string of characters "SET" expressingthe start of a set of concepts, the first concept thereof and a conceptdelimiter mark is larger than the surplus width, or to the case wherethe width of a combination of the last concept in a set of concepts anda character ")" expressing the end of the set of concepts is larger thanthe surplus width. In these cases, the view area is set so that a newline is begun.

The second method is applied to the case where the width of acombination of a preposition, a string of characters "SET" expressing aset of characters, the first concept thereof and a concept delimitermark is not larger than the surplus width but the sum of the width ofthe combination and the width of the second concept in the set ofconcepts is larger than the surplus width, or to the case where thewidth of a combination of the N-th concept in a set of concepts and adelimiter mark is not larger than the surplus width but the sum of thewidth of the combination and the width of the (N+1)-th concept is largerthan the surplus width. In the former case, the view area is set so thata new line is begun at the second concept in the string of concepts. Inthe latter case, the view area is set so that a new line is begun at the(N+1)-th concept.

The third method is applied to the case where the width of a combinationof concepts in a set of concepts and a character ")" expressing the endof the set of concepts is not larger than the surplus width but the sumof the width of the combination and the width of a postposition islarger than the surplus width. In this case, the view area is set so anew line is begun at the string of characters as a combination of theconcepts, the characters ")" and the postposition.

After the area for displaying a string of characters as a combination ofa preposition, a case slot filler and a postposition is set, the areafor displaying a string of characters as a verbal concept is set. Thus,the respective strings of characters are displayed on the basis of theview areas in a fact window in a sentence.

The coordinates of the lower left of a number area are detected, so thata value obtained by adding a predetermined value to the Y coordinatethereof is set as the Y coordinate of the starting point (upper left) ofthe fact window in a sentence. When the sum of the X coordinate thereofand the maximum value of the view area is not larger than the totalwidth of the display, a value obtained by adding a predetermined valueto the X coordinate thereof is set as the X coordinate of the startingpoint (upper left) of the window. When the coordinates of the lowerright of the view area in the window thus set is out of range allowedfor display, the coordinates of the starting point is reset so that theview area of the window is in the allowed range. The window obtained bysetting the view area as described above is a fact widow in a sentencein FIG. 41.

Thus, the display of the full sentence of a fact displayed in a factwindow for a concept can be performed.

In the following, the display of a candidate for a query condition willbe described as an eighth embodiment according to the display method ofthe invention.

FIG. 42 shows a group of windows for conversation with a user at thetime of query editing. The concept selected by the user through clickingthe left button of a mouse at the time of query editing is called"current concept". The current concept is displayed emphatically. Inthis embodiment, the current concept is emphasized by a rectangular form4223. The sentence forming a condition for retrieving a concept iscalled "query".

The basic window is classified into three, namely, super-concept window4201, query editing window 4211 and node tree window 4221. Amongconcepts from the uppermost concept "UNIVERSAL" 4203 in the knowledgebase to the current concept, a group of super-concepts connected to thecurrent concept by is-a relations are displayed in the super-conceptwindow 4201.

A query is displayed in the query editing window 4211. The part enclosedby brankets in the window represents a case in which replacement isallowed. One of concepts enclosed by brankets is the current concept.The concept as a base for adding a query condition is called "rootconcept in a query".

A node tree for concepts allowed to be put in a case using the currentconcept in a query is displayed in the node tree window 4221 so that thecurrent concept is arranged therein. The uppermost concept among caseconstraint concepts is called "anchor concept". The uppermost conceptamong concepts displayed in the window is called "root concept in atree".

The restriction addition window 4231 is popped up when a new restrictionline is added to the query. The window is displayed by user's selectingan item from a list of functions in a pop-up menu through clicking amouse in a concept in the query.

In FIG. 42, the root concept in the query is "company" 4213, and theconditions added to "company" are "Its place is Tokyo!" 4217 and "it wasestablished by person!" 4219. Further, a condition (restriction) basedon the relational concept "take" is to be added to the "person" by usingthe restriction addition window 4231. In the node tree window, a stringof characters "intellectual entity" 4227 is displayed, and strings ofcharacters "person" 4225 and "organization" as subconcepts thereof aredisplayed in suitable places. The is-a relations between "intellectualentity" and "person" and between "intellectual entity" and"organization" are expressed by connecting these concepts by line. Theline 4229 represents the is-a relation between "intellectual entity" and"person". In this case, the root concept in the tree is "intellectualentity" 4227.

In the query editing window 4211, "company" 4213 is a root concept in aquery. A concept enclosed in brankets in the query can be changed to thecurrent concept by pointing a string of characters expressing theconcept enclosed in the branckets through clicking a mouse. The nodetree in the node tree window is displayed so that a category allowed tobe inputted in the case using the current concept in the query is put inthe central place. Accordingly, when a concept except the currentconcept in the query editing widow is pointed as a new current concept,the node tree in the node tree window is automatically changed to a newnode tree having the new current concept in the central place. In FIG.42, the current concept "person" 4215 is used as agent case of arelational concept "establish". When "intellectual entity" is set as acase constraint concept of agent case in a template of "establish", theuppermost concept among concepts permitting the change of the currentconcept in the case, such as "intellectual entity", is the anchorconcept. The anchor concept is displayed emphatically as "intellectualentity" 4207 in the super-concept window. Although FIG. 42 shows thecase where the case constraint concept coincides with the anchorconcept, the two do not always coincide with each other. In FIG. 43, thecurrent concept is "person" 4310, which is restricted as follows.

"It graduated from University A!" (4303)

The "person" is used as agent case of "graduate".

Accordingly, no concept but concept used as agent case of "graduate" canbe put in agent case of "establish". The case constraint concept ofagent case in the template of "graduate" is "person". Accordingly, thecategory of concepts permitting the change of the current concept is acommon portion contained in subconcepts of "intellectual entity" and"person", that is, a set of subconcepts of "person". In this case, theanchor concept is "person", so that the super-concept window shows that"person" 4305 is an anchor concept.

When an anchor concept is given, the root concept in the tree is equalto the anchor concept. When a plurality of anchor concepts are given,the root concept in the tree is equal to the lowermost concept amongcommon super-concepts of the anchor concepts. FIG. 44 shows the casewhere a plurality of anchor concepts are given. In the drawing, thecurrent concept is "workstation" 4403. The current concept is used asobject case of "develop". The case constraint concepts of object case ofthe template of "develop" are "hardware" and "software". Because thereis no restriction given to the current concept, the anchor concepts are"hardware" and "software". The root concept in the tree is the lowermostconcept "artificial thing" 4405 among super-concepts common to"hardware" and "software". Concepts subsumed under "artificial thing"are displayed in the node tree window.

Concepts subsumed under the anchor concept in the super-concept window,the query editing window and the node tree window are displayed bywhite-on-black characters as shown in this embodiment to distinguish theconcepts from other concepts. Display in italic types, display indifferent fonts, display in different colors or display in pointers suchas frames, underlines or the like may be used as another distinguishingmethod. Further, the current concept is displayed with another pointer,for example, in this embodiment, a rectangular form. As a result, theuser can see at a glance what concept can be put in the case using thecurrent concept in the query. FIG. 44 shows that "artificial thing" 4405expressed by other characters than the white-on-black characters cannotbe used in the case of "workstation" 4403 used in the query sentence "Itdeveloped workstation!" 4401 to substitute for "workstation" but otherconcepts expressed by white-on-black characters can be used.

The display of a candidate for a query condition can be performed asdescribed above.

In the following, the display of a verbal query and an attribute queryallowed to be added will be described as a ninth embodiment according tothe display method of the invention. The case where "Company placed inTokyo and established by person who took doctorate at University A" isretrieved is used as an example.

When a query used for the previous retrieval remains in the queryediting window, the query is initialized by selecting "reset" from the"display" menu in the window. As shown in FIG. 45, the root concept inthe query in the query editing window is changed to "concept" 4511 and,at the same time, the root concept in the tree and the anchor conceptare changed to "concept" 4523. This is because objects of the retrievalare conceptual concepts, that is, concepts subsumed under "concept" (inthe node tree). In this case, the object of the retrieval is "company".Accordingly, when "company" 4525 in the node tree window is pointed byclicking a mouse in step 6600, the root concept in the query is changedto

Company!:?

so that super-concepts of "company" are displayed in the super-conceptwindow. When there is no restriction given to "company", the conditionin step 6610 is not satisfied but the retrieval can be performed in step6680. In this case, all companies registered in the knowledge base areretrieved. In the addition of a restriction, "new restriction addition"in step 6620 is fitted. When the root concept "company" in the query inthe query editing window is pointed by clicking a mouse in step 6710, alist of functions allowed to be executed is displayed as a pop-up menuin step 6720.

When an item is selected from the list in step 6730, the pointer to alist of relational template ID allowed to give a restriction to"company" is initialized to NULL and then a list of template ID isgenerated in step 6810. Then, in step 6820, a list of facts using theconcept "company" is obtained from the knowledge base. FIG. 23 shows afact using a concept named "company" 2301 and the condition in whichinformation of a template allowed to use the concept is stored. In thisdrawing, the part enclosed in double quotation marks, such as

"company" 2301,

represents that the enclosed information is a string of characters.Although this drawing shows the case where the string of characters suchas "company" is directly held, the invention can be applied to the casewhere string ID instead of the string of characters is held so that atable expressing the correspondence between string ID and the string ofcharacters is provided separately. For simplification of description,this drawing shows the case where the string of characters is directlyheld. This rule can be applied to all strings of characters enclosed indouble quotation marks.

The list of ID for facts using a concept is held in each case. In FIG.23, a fact identified by fact ID 2312 and a fact identified by fact ID2314 use "company" as agent case. A fact identified by fact ID 2322 anda fact identified by fact ID 2324 use "company" as recipient case. Alist of these fact ID data is obtained.

When the pointer to the list of fact ID thus obtained is not NULL (step6830), template ID of a relation used by the fact pointed by the pointeris obtained in step 6832. Information relative to the fact can beobtained from the fact ID 2401 pointed by the pointer because theinformation is stored as shown in FIG. 24. Template ID 2403 of arelation used by the fact is stored, so that the template ID can beobtained.

Information relative to the template is stored as shown in FIG. 25, sothat the information can be obtained from template ID. A relationalconcept 2503 is stored, so that FIG. 25 shows a template of an attributeconcept "industry". Accordingly, when the template ID 2403 in FIG. 24coincides with the template ID 2503 in FIG. 25, the fact identified byfact ID 2401 is a fact expressed by a relation "type-of-industry". Inthe pointer 2504, information concerning the case order, informationconcerning case constraint concepts, information concerningpostpositions in Japanese and information concerning prepositions inEnglish are stored. These data are displayed in the order determined bythe pointer. In FIG. 25, data are displayed in the order of attributeobject case 2505, attribute concept 2513 (in this case,"type-of-industry") and attribute value case 2517. The pointers 2506 and2518 express case constraint concepts of respective cases. The caseconstraint concept of attribute object case 2505 is "company" 2511 andthe preposition is "of" 2506. When there are a plurality of caseconstraint concepts, these are indicated by the pointer 2509. The caseconstraint concept of attribute value case is "type-of-industry" 2523.Accordingly, this template shows the following sentence.

"Type-of-industry of company! is type-of industry!"

The pointer 2406 in FIG. 24 indicates the contents of the cases of thetemplate. "B Company" 2410 and "electric company" 2416 are stored inattribute object case 2407 and attribute value case 2412, respectively.Because one case is filled with one concept, "single" 2408 is storedtherein. When one case is filled with a plurality of concepts, theconcepts are connected by the pointer 2409. When the relation betweenthe concepts means "A and B", "and" 2408 is stored therein. When therelation between the concepts means "set of A and B", "set" is storedtherein. When the relation between the concepts means "A or B", "or" isstored therein. Accordingly, when the template ID 2401 in FIG. 24 isequal to the template ID 2501 in FIG. 25, the fact in FIG. 24 expressesthe following meaning.

"Type-of-industry of B company is electric company"

FIG. 24 shows the expression of a fact for attribute concept. A fact forverbal concept is expressed as shown in FIGS. 26 and 27. This shows afact expressing the following meaning.

"Taro Hitachi took doctorate at University A"

In step 6834, a judgment is made as to whether the template ID obtainedby the step 6832 is in the list of template ID generated by the step6810. When there is no template ID, the template ID is added to the listof template ID in step 6838. Then, the pointer to the list of fact ID ismoved by one to check the next fact, whereafter the situation of theroutine goes back to the step 6830. This procedure is repeated unlessthe pointer to the list of fact ID is NULL.

Thus, a list of relations using the concept "Company" can be obtained sothat the relations are unique. In step 6850, the list of relations canbe exhibited to the user in the form of a template 4601 as a conditionallowed to be added to "company" 4603 as shown in FIG. 46. The casefilled with "company" in the template thus exhibited is expressed by apronoun corresponding to the case, such as "its" 4611, "it" 4613 or thelike. When the number of templates exhibited is so large that thetemplates cannot be put in one window, a scroll bar 4621 appears toindicate the rate of the exhibited templates to all candidate templates.Although this embodiment shows the case where relational templates areobtained from sentences using a concept as a condition allowed to begiven to the concept, templates allowed to use the concept can beexhibited as candidates. FIG. 23 shows the case where a list 2330 oftemplates allowed to use the concept is obtained on the basis of conceptID. The list of templates is held in each case in the same manner as thelist of fact ID in FIG. 28.

In this embodiment, candidates for templates used in facts are exhibitedbecause the templates are used in the process of generating a query. Ifa candidate selected from templates not used in facts is used in aquery, the result cannot be fitted so that a large number of candidatesare required. In this embodiment, however, templates of relations areextracted as candidates from facts. Accordingly, even if the usersearches a large number of relations, a reduced number of relationshaving the possibility that results are obtained can be added asconditions. Further, the number of exhibited relations is reduced sothat it is easy for the user to find the conditions to be added. In thecase where the invention is applied to the inputting of facts, a list oftemplates allowed to be used can be exhibited as a list of candidates.

Thus, the display of a verbal query and an attribute query allowed to beadded can be performed.

In the following, the filtration of candidates will be described as atenth embodiment according to the display method of the invention. Whenthe number of relations exhibited in the restriction addition window islarge, relations as candidates can be filtered in step 6860.

When, for example, a restriction is to be given to "Company" 4603 in arelation using "person" 4605 in FIG. 46, "person" is inputted in afocused concept input box 4631 in step 6870. In step 6910, a judgment ismade as to whether the pointer to the list of template ID is NULL. Whenthe pointer is not NULL, template ID pointed by the pointer is obtainedin step 6920 and then a focused concept usable flag for indicatingwhether the template can use the focused concept is initialized to zero.

Then, a judgment is made as to whether the focused concept can be usedin the case in the template. In the examination of the template in FIG.25, a judgment in step 6940 is first made as to whether the pointer 2504is NULL. When the pointer is not NULL, the case constraint concept (inthis case, "company" 2511) of the case pointed by the pointer isobtained in step 7010. Then, in step 7020, a judgment is made as towhether the focused concept is lower than the case constraint concept.When the focused concept is subsumed under the case constraint concept,the focused concept is embedded in the position of the case constraintconcept and then the focused concept usable flag is set to 1. Then, instep 7050, the pointer 2504 is moved by one and then the situation ofthe routine goes back to the step 6940. This procedure is repeatedunless the pointer is NULL, that is, before the examination of all casesis completed. Here, with respect to the template in which at least onecase can be filled with the focused concept, the focused concept usableflag is 1. In step 6960, a judgment is made as to whether the focusedconcept usable flag is zero. When the flag is zero, the template IDobtained by the step 6920 is removed from the list of template ID instep 6970. In step 6980, the pointer to the list of template ID is movedby one to check the next template and then the situation of the routinegoes back to the step 6910. This procedure is repeated unless thepointer is NULL.

Templates as candidates are selected by performing matching of stringsof characters for names of all subconcepts as described above. In therestriction addition window 4601 in FIG. 46, conditions allowed to beadded to "Company" 4603 are displayed without focusing. As a result, alarge number of conditions are displayed. In FIG. 47, conditions allowedto given to "company" are filtered to conditions allowed to embed"person". When the user wants to add conditions to "company" on thebasis of "person", conditions can be filtered as described above.

Focused concepts allowed to be use are thus selected from the templatesas candidates for restriction addition and displayed in step 6890. Atthis time, the concept "person" used for focusing is displayed in thecase in the step 6890 as shown in "Its owner is person!" (4701).Accordingly, the user can see what case can be filled with the conceptused for focusing. When a sentence to be displayed in the query editingwindow is selected from candidates, the trouble required for resettingthe focused concept as a concept in a case in the selected sentence canbe omitted. Thus, filtration and user's selection of candidates can befacilitated.

The filtration (focusing) can be repeated. FIG. 48 shows the case wherea filtration based on "University A" and a filtration based on"doctorate" are performed successively. "University A" and "doctorate"used for filtration are embedded in the candidate sentence 4801. Amongcase selection buttons in the case selection window, buttons 4803 and4805 corresponding to cases filled with the concepts used forfiltration, that is, corresponding to collection-in case and objectcase, have been selected initially.

Although this embodiment has shown the case where focused concepts areinputted after all candidates are displayed once, the invention can beapplied to the case where focused concepts may be inputted initially.

When a template of "establish" as a condition to be added is to beselected from focused candidates, the color of the button 4711 ischanged by clicking the button through a mouse to thereby indicate theselection of the button in step 6750. Further, a case selection window4721 appears to inquire what case among the cases of the template"establish" as a conditional sentence is to be added to the query. Thebuttons 4723 and 4739 are buttons for selecting whether casescorresponding to the buttons are used. In this case, the button 4723shows the selected case. In step 6760, the state ofselection/non-selection can be turned over in the same manner as atoggle switch by clicking these buttons. At this time, a casecorresponding to the place 4725 where there is no selection button is acase using "company" as an object of restriction addition. This isbecause this case must be used.

When the initialization button 4731 is then clicked, the state goes backto the state existing before candidates are filtered.

When the addition button 4733 is clicked in step 6770, a new line 4901is added to the query editing window 4900 and displayed as shown in FIG.49 in step 6780. Assuming now that there are some conditions to be addedto "company" 5001 and "person" 5003, then, in step 6330,

"Its place is Tokyo!" (5007) and

"It took license! at University A!" (5005)

are added as conditional sentences to "company" 5001 and "person" 5003,respectively. This sentence modifies "person" in the following sentence.

"It was established by person!" (5004)

Accordingly, these two sentences express the following participialmodification sentence.

"It was established by a person taking license at University A."

Sentences modifying concepts in the query can be added successively asquery conditions in the manner as described above. FIG. 50 shows thestate of the display in which addition is finished. An indented line inthe query in the query editing window 5010 represents that the sentencein the indent line modifies the above sentence. When the invention isapplied to inputting of facts, templates allowed to be used can befiltered by specific concepts or relations and exhibited.

The filtration of candidates can be thus performed.

The alteration of concepts allowed to be put in cases in conditions willbe described as an eleventh embodiment according to the display methodof the invention. In the previous embodiment, relations used forrestriction addition and cases used can be selected but case constraintconcepts are put in cases except the cases using focused conceptsbecause no case except the cases using focused concepts is not set withrespect to the content thereof. Therefore, in step 6790, case elementsare set. In FIG. 50, "license" 5005 is put in the object case of "take".When this is to be altered to "doctorate" 5023, in step 7210, the caserequiring the alteration of the concept in the case in the query in thequery editing window 5010 , that is, the case filled with "license"5005, is pointed. The current concept is automatically changed to"license" 5005, so that the node tree window is rewritten to a categoryallowed to be inputted in the case in step 7220. FIG. 50 shows thedisplay just after the rewriting.

When a concept in a case in the query is to be changed in step 6620, theconcept in the case requiring alteration of the concept is altered asthe current concept and then a concept to be set as the content of thecase is selected from the node tree window in the same manner as in thecase where the object case of "take" is altered from "license" to"doctorate" at the time of restriction addition.

When a string of characters for a concept to be retrieved is inputted inthe string input area 4241 for search, a concept having a string fittedto the input string as expression is retrieved and displayed in the nodetree. Subconcepts of a concept can be further displayed by selecting"sub-concept display" from a pop-up menu displayed by clicking the rightbutton of a mouse in the concept in the node tree window. A desiredconcept can be displayed by repeating this procedure.

In this case, both the root concept in the tree and the anchor conceptare "license" 5021. In step 7230, the current concept is altered to"doctorate" and object case of "take" is also altered to "doctorate" byclicking a mouse in "doctorate" 5023 in the node tree window 5020. Whena plurality of concepts are to be put in one case, a pop-up menu isdisplayed by clicking a mouse in the case. For example, the pop-up menucontains:

"SET",

"AND", and

"OR".

When "SET" is selected, the meaning of the case in which a plurality ofconcepts, for example, A and B, are set is

"a set of A and B" which is displayed as (SET:A;B).

When "AND" is selected, the meaning of the case in which a plurality ofconcepts, for example, A and B, are set is

"A and B" which is displayed as (AND:A;B).

When "OR" is selected, the meaning of the case in which a plurality ofconcepts, for example, A and B, are set is

"A or B" which is displayed as (OR:A;B).

FIG. 51 shows the case where a plurality of concepts are set. In thisdrawing, there is shown a query as follows: "What is company ? It wasestablished by a set of H company and F company. It has laboratory inTokyo and United State. The establishment of the H company is 1900 or1910.". In the query, (SET: F company!; H company!) 5101.expresses "aset of F company and H company", (AND: Tokyo!; United States!) 5102expresses "Tokyo and United States", and (OR: 1900!; 1910!) expresses"1900 or 1910". When a conditional sentence is further added to aplurality of concepts, a concept to which the conditional sentence isadded after "co-occurrence" is displayed to make the relation orconnecting relation clear. For example, in the drawing, the conditionalsentence "The H company has laboratory in (AND: Tokto!; UnitedStates!)." 5105 modifies one concept "H company" among concepts in (SET:F company!; H company!) 5101."When the conditional sentence modifiesboth "F company" and "H company", the conditional sentence is displayedas "The (SET: F company!; H company!) have laboratory in (AND: Tokyo!;United States!).

When the invention is applied to inputting of facts, concepts allowed tobe put in cases in the facts can be altered.

The alteration of concepts allowed to be put in cases in conditions canbe performed as described above.

In the following, addition of a case to a conditional sentence, deletionof a case in a conditional sentence and deletion of a conditionalsentence will be described as a twelfth embodiment according to thedisplay method of the invention.

When case editing is required in step 6620, that is, when addition of acase to a conditional sentence in a query or deletion of a case from aconditional sentence is required, a pop-up menu is displayed by clickinga mouse in the head of the conditional sentence to be subjected to caseaddition/deletion in step 7110. When an item is selected in step 7130, acase selection window (4721 in FIG. 47) as used at the time ofrestriction addition is displayed in step 7140. At this time, caseswhich have been used in the query are displayed emphatically like thebutton 4722, whereas cases not used are displayed like the button 4739.

The state of selection/non-selection can be changed over like a toggleswitch by user's clicking these buttons through a mouse. In step 7150,cases used in the query are added/deleted by clicking these buttonsthrough the mouse. At the time of case deletion, a case can be alsodeleted by selecting an item from a pop-up menu displayed throughclicking the mouse in the case in the query editing window.

In deletion of a condition once added, a conditional sentence to bedeleted and conditional sentences added to concepts in the conditionalsentence are deleted by clicking a mouse in the head of the conditionalsentence in step 6640 and selecting an item from a pop-up menu in step6650.

Addition of a conditional sentence, deletion of a case in a conditionalsentence and deletion of a conditional sentence can be performed asdescribed above.

In the following, the display of a result will be described as athirteenth embodiment according to the display method of the invention.In execution of retrieval, a concept to be retrieved in the queryediting window is pointed by clicking a mouse in step 6680, so that anitem is selected from a pop-up menu. Not only root concepts in a querybut other concepts can be retrieved as long as the concepts are in thewindow. When, for example, "person" 5003 is pointed by clicking a mousein FIG. 50 to execute retrieval,

"Person which took license at University A" is retrieved. When there isany concept fitted to the query condition, a result list window 5200 isdisplayed. A result list is shown in FIG. 52. In this case, "Tanaka X"5205, "Hitachi Y" 5206 and "Yamada Z" 5207 are concepts (in this case,"person") fitted to the query condition. The number of concepts fittedto the query condition is displayed as "The number of matched concepts:3" 5201 in an upper portion of the window.

When an item is selected from the "view" menu 5202 by pointing a buttoncorresponding to a string of characters, result information in detailcan be displayed by combining facts accumulated on the knowledge basewith the resulting concept. It is assumed now in the drawing that eachof the toggle buttons for "Tanaka X" 5205 and "Hitachi Y" 5206 is in aselection state and that the toggle button for "Yamada Z" 5207 is in anon-selection state. When an item is selected from the menu, specificlicenses (which "Tanaka X" and "Hitachi Y" took at University A)expressed in facts with respect to "Tanaka X" and "Hitachi Y" in whicheach of the toggle buttons is in a selection state are embedded incorresponding cases in the query and displayed in the result browserwindow.

When an item is selected from the "selection" menu 5203, all togglebuttons corresponding to resulting concepts can be turned to "selection"or to "non-selection".

The display of results can be performed as described above.

According to the present invention, in an information storage andretrieval system using a conceptual relation model for expressingknowledge by concepts and relations defined between concepts, factinformation expressed by both concepts and relations stored in aknowledge base is displayed on the basis of templates defining thesignificant structures of cases and template patterns so that conceptsattendantly stored in the templates are displayed together withprepositions/postpositions in the form of a string of characters. As aresult, not only sentences based on polynomial relations can be inputtedcorrespondingly to the templates but the sentences can be expressed asregistered facts in the form of a language as near as a natural languageas possible. Furthermore, strings of characters forprepositions/postpositions can be stored regardless of the languagedisplayed. Furthermore, an effect arises in that there is no generationof sentences making no sense, because inputting is based on templatesand a hierarchy of concepts. Furthermore, sentences can be inputted byusing a pointing device, so that a user inexperienced for operating akeyboard can input sentences easily.

Furthermore, guidance concerning concepts allowed to be inputted can bedisplayed by using a multi-window function, so that the user can selectconcepts speedily to generate sentences.

In addition, in the case where the number of facts to be displayed islarger than a threshold, the system can automatically select facts to bedisplayed to make it possible to use a limited view area effectively.

What is claimed is:
 1. An information storage and retrieval systemcomprising:a concept relation model for representing knowledge in ahierarchical tree form in terms of conceptual concepts including atleast a noun conceptual concept, a name conceptual concept, a numericalvalue conceptual concept and a unit conceptual concept, relationalconcepts each defining relations between plural conceptual concepts andattribute name concepts each defining relation resulting from anattribute common to plural conceptual concepts; wherein said conceptualconcepts, relational concepts and attribute name concepts are formedinto plural templates including at least a first template which includestwo conceptual concepts related to each other by an attribute nameconcept, and a second template which includes plural conceptualconcepts, related to each other by a relational concept; means forinputting fact information represented in terms of said conceptualconcepts, said relational concepts and attribute name concepts accordingto said first and second templates defining previously inputted factinformation and fact information currently being inputted, each of saidtemplates being related to a relational concept or an attribute nameconcept, and defining a relation between a relational concept or anattribute name concept and semantic information which includes at leastone conceptual concept, wherein said templates are arranged in saidhierarchical tree form, wherein a relation between a relational conceptor an attribute name concept in an upper template and a relationalconcept or an attribute name concept in a lower template is defined asan is-a relation and wherein a relation between an upper template and alower template is defined as an is-a relation; a knowledge base forstoring said fact information, said conceptual concepts, said relationalconcepts, said attribute name concepts and said templates; means forgenerating a retrieval request for a conceptual concept based on saidtemplates, said conceptual concepts and said stored fact information asa result of interaction with a user; means for retrieving a requestedconceptual concept based on said retrieval request; and means fordisplaying a fact window including said inputted fact information and anode tree window including said conceptual concepts, said relationalconcepts and said attribute name concepts in said hierarchical tree formfor viewing by said user.
 2. An information storage and retrieval systemaccording to claim 1, wherein said relational concepts include verbalconcepts representing verbs, and said attribute name concepts includeattribute concepts representing attributes.
 3. An information storageand retrieval system according to claim 2, wherein said conceptualconcepts include noun concepts representing nouns, unit name conceptsrepresenting names of numerical values, and unit concepts representingunits, andwherein said system further comprises:means for managing saidrelational concepts by is-a relations, each is-a relation defining alower relational concept as a thing defined by an upper relationalconcept, and managing said conceptual concepts by part-whole relations,each part-whole relation defining a lower concept as a thing includedwithin the whole thing defined by an upper concept.
 4. An informationstorage and retrieval system according to claim 3, wherein said systemfurther comprises:a second knowledge base for storing a concept relationmodel for managing and expressing said verbal concepts and saidattribute concepts in said relational concepts by is-a relations.
 5. Aninformation storage and retrieval system according to claim 3, whereinsaid system further comprises:means for retrieving fact informationstored in terms of said relational concepts and said attribute nameconcepts and at least one conceptual concept by using at least one upperrelational concept or attribute name concept positioned in saidhierarchical tree form over said relational concepts and said attributename concepts.
 6. An information storage and retrieval system accordingto claim 3, wherein said system further comprises:means for storing saidnoun conceptual concepts and said unit conceptual concepts in terms ofnames each expressed by at least one string of characters, and managingsaid noun conceptual concepts and said unit conceptual concepts by usingone of said strings as a representative name.
 7. An information storageand retrieval system according to claim 2, wherein said system furthercomprises:storing information of standard cases to define semanticinformation in said templates, and a semantic priority of a semanticorder among standard cases necessary for representing said verbalconcepts.
 8. An information storage and retrieval system according toclaim 2, wherein said system further comprises:means for storing saidrelation concepts in terms of names each expressed by at least onestring of characters, and managing said relational concepts by using oneof said strings as a representative name.
 9. An information storage andretrieval system according to claim 2, wherein said system furthercomprises:means for storing said verbal concepts in terms of etyma ofcorresponding verbs each expressed by a string of characters, andstoring information concerning strings of characters corresponding toconjugations thereof and a difference in kinds of conjugations.
 10. Aninformation storage and retrieval system according to claim 1, whereintemplate patterns are respectively defined for said templates,andwherein said system further comprises:means for expressing semanticinformation in a pseudo-natural language by using said templatepatterns.
 11. An information storage and retrieval system according toclaim 1, wherein said system further comprises:means for selecting atemplate based on semantic information of said templates and saidrequested conceptual concept such that said requested conceptual conceptcorresponds to at least one case of said semantic information.
 12. Aninformation storage and retrieval system according to claim 1, whereinsaid system further comprises:means for selecting said templates basedon semantic information of said templates to selected templatescorresponding to said relational concepts or said attribute nameconcepts.
 13. An information storage and retrieval system comprising:aconcept relation model for representing knowledge in a hierarchical treeform in terms of conceptual concepts including at least a nounconceptual concept, a name conceptual concept a numerical valueconceptual concept and a unit conceptual concept, relational conceptseach defining relations between plural conceptual concepts and attributename concepts each defining relation resulting from an attribute commonto plural; wherein said conceptual concepts, relational concepts andattribute name concepts are formed into plural templates including atleast a first template which includes two conceptual concepts related toeach other by an attribute name concept, and a second template whichincludes plural conceptual concepts, related to each other by arelational concept; means for inputting fact information represented interms of said conceptual concepts, said relational concepts andattribute name concepts according to said first and second templatesdefining previously inputted fact information and fact informationcurrently being inputted, each of said templates being related to arelational concept or an attribute name concept, and defining a relationbetween a relational concept or an attribute name concept and semanticinformation which includes at least one conceptual concept, wherein saidtemplates are arranged in said hierarchical tree form wherein a relationbetween a relational concept or an attribute name concept in an uppertemplate and a relational concept or an attribute name concept in alower template is defined as an is-a relation and wherein a relationbetween an upper template and a lower template is defined as an is-arelation; a knowledge base for storing said fact information, saidconceptual concepts, said relational concepts, said attribute nameconcepts and said templates; means for generating a retrieval requestfor a conceptual concept based on said templates, said conceptualconcepts and said stored fact information as a result of interactionwith a user; means for retrieving a requested conceptual concept basedon said retrieval request; means for displaying a fact window includingsaid inputted fact information and a node tree window including saidconceptual concepts, said relational concepts and said attribute nameconcepts in said hierarchical tree form for viewing by said user; asecond knowledge base for storing a concept relation model forexpressing strings of characters for prepositions added before semanticinformation of said relational concepts and said attribute name conceptsand postpositions added after semantic information of said relationalconcepts and said attribute name concepts so that said templates areable to be applied in a plurality of pseudo-natural languages by addingsaid prepositions or said postpositions; and means for adding saidprepositions and postpositions before and after said semanticinformation of said relational concepts and said attribute nameconcepts.
 14. An information storage and retrieval system comprising:aconcept relation model for representing knowledge in a hierarchical treeform in terms of conceptual concepts including at least a nounconceptual concept, a name conceptual concept, a numerical valueconceptual concept and a unit conceptual concept, relational conceptseach defining relations between plural conceptual concepts and attributename concepts each defining relation resulting from an attribute commonto plural; wherein said conceptual concepts, relational concepts andattribute name concepts are formed into plural templates including atleast a first template which includes two conceptual concepts related toeach other by an attribute name concept, and a second template whichincludes plural conceptual concepts, related to each other by arelational concept; means for inputting fact information represented interms of said conceptual concepts said relational concepts and attributename concepts according to said first and second templates definingpreviously inputted fact information and fact information currentlybeing inputted, each of said templates being related to a relationalconcept or an attribute name concept, and defining a relation between arelational concept or an attribute name concept and semantic informationwhich includes at least one conceptual concept, wherein said templatesare arranged in said hierarchical tree form, wherein a relation betweena relational concept or an attribute name concept in an upper templateand a relational concept or an attribute name concept in a lowertemplate is defined as an is-a relation and wherein a relation betweenan upper template and a lower template is defined as an is-a relation;means for inputting a plurality of conceptual concepts, adding generalinformation to said conceptual concepts so that the expression of saidfact information including said conceptual concepts to which saidgeneral information has been added becomes general, and addingindefinite information to said conceptual concepts so that theexpression of said conceptual concepts to which said indefiniteinformation has been added becomes indefinite; means for quoting otherfact information instead of said conceptual concept, so that said quotedother fact information becomes an objective expression; a knowledge basefor storing said fact information, said conceptual concepts, saidrelational concepts, said attribute name concepts and said templates;means for managing said stored fact information based on said semanticinformation defined by said templates; and means for displaying a factwindow including said inputted fact information and a node tree windowincluding said conceptual concepts, said relational concepts and saidattribute name concepts in said hierarchical tree form which includes atleast one conceptual concept.
 15. An information storage and retrievalsystem according to claim 14, wherein said relational concepts includeverbal concepts representing verbs, and said attribute name conceptsincludes attribute concepts representing attributes; andwherein saidsystem further comprises:means for managing said conceptual concepts,said relational concepts said attribute name concepts by is-a relations,each is-a relation defining a lower concept as a thing defined by anupper concept, and managing said conceptual concepts by part-wholerelations, each part-whole relation defining a lower concept as a thingincluded within a whole thing defined by an upper concept; means forstoring a plurality of conceptual concepts expressing semanticinformation in said fact information; and means for inputting other factinformation modifying a conceptual concept, and adding exclusioninformation with at least one subconcept to said at least one conceptualconcept so that the expression of said conceptual concept to which saidexclusion information with said at least one subconcept has been added,becomes effective to all subconcepts of said conceptual concept exceptsaid at least one subconcept.
 16. An information storage and retrievalsystem according to claim 15, wherein said system furthercomprises:means for storing said other fact information modifyingconceptual concepts and adding said other fact information to saidconceptual concepts expressing semantic information in said factinformation.
 17. An information storage and retrieval system accordingto claim 15, wherein said system further comprises:means for storingsaid exclusion information added to at least one conceptual concept ofsaid conceptual concepts expressing semantic information in said factinformation so that said exclusion information expresses exclusion ofsaid at least one conceptual concept from subconcepts of said conceptualconcept.
 18. An information storage and retrieval system according toclaim 14, wherein said system further comprises means for storing saidgeneral information added to said conceptual concepts expressingsemantic information in said fact information.
 19. An informationstorage and retrieval system according to claim 14, wherein said systemfurther comprises means for storing said indefinite information added tosaid conceptual concepts for expressing that semantic information insaid fact information, is indefinite so that said indefinite informationexpresses that the expression of said conceptual concepts as semanticinformation is indefinite.
 20. An information storage and retrievalsystem according to claim 14, wherein said system further comprisesmeans for storing semantic information contained in said factinformation, by extracting fact information from other fact information.21. An information storage and retrieval system comprising:a conceptrelation model for representing knowledge in a hierarchical tree form interms of conceptual concepts including at least a noun conceptualconcept, a name conceptual concept, a numerical value conceptual conceptand a unit conceptual concept, relational concepts each definingrelations between plural conceptual concepts and attribute name conceptseach defining relation resulting from an attribute common to plural;wherein said conceptual concepts, relational concepts and attribute nameconcepts are formed into plural templates including at least a firsttemplate which includes two conceptual concepts related to each other byan attribute name concept, and a second template which includes pluralconceptual concepts, related to each other by a relational concept;means for inputting fact information represented in terms of saidconceptual concepts said relational concepts and attribute name conceptsaccording to said first and second templates defining previouslyinputted fact information and fact information currently being inputted,each of said templates being related to a relational concept or anattribute name concept defining a relation between, and defining arelation between a relational concept or an attribute name concept andsemantic information which includes at least one conceptual concept,wherein said templates are arranged in said hierarchical tree form,wherein a relation between a relational concept or an attribute nameconcept in an upper template and a relational concept or an attributename concept in a lower template is defined as an is-a relation andwherein a relation between an upper template and a lower template isdefined as an is-a relation; a knowledge base for storing said factinformation, said conceptual concepts, said relational concepts, saidattribute name concepts and said templates; means for generating aretrieval request for a conceptual concept based on said templates, saidconceptual concepts and said stored fact information as a result ofinteraction with a user; means for retrieving a requested conceptualconcept based on said retrieval request; means for displaying a factwindow including said inputted fact information and a node tree windowincluding said conceptual concepts, said relational concepts and saidattribute name concepts in said hierarchical tree form for viewing bysaid user; means for storing standard cases to define semanticinformation in said templates, and an order of semantic priority amongstandard cases necessary for representing said relational concepts;means for selecting a conceptual concept used in said fact informationand a retrieval condition, extracting candidate sentences according tosaid templates that use said selected conceptual concept by using saidtemplates, and displaying said candidate sentences; means for selectingat least one candidate sentence from said candidate sentences; means forselecting a case from cases in said selected candidate sentences, saidcase corresponding to said standard cases containing said retrievalcondition using said templates from cases in said selected candidatesentence; and means for substituting said conceptual concept for anotherconceptual concept in said selected case of said template and displayingsaid conceptual concept substituted in said selected case.
 22. Aninformation storage and retrieval system according to claim 21, whereinsaid system further comprises:means for inputting semantic informationbased on a natural language sentence having a plurality of casesselected by a user using a pointing device.
 23. An information storageand retrieval system according to claim 21, wherein said system furthercomprises:means for selecting a conceptual concept used in said factinformation and said case displayed in said node tree window by using apointing device.
 24. An information storage and retrieval systemaccording to claim 23, wherein said system further comprises:means forobtaining an uppermost conceptual concept allowed to enter a casedefined in said template by selecting a conceptual concept in said factinformation and said retrieval condition by a user using said pointingdevice, rewriting said conceptual concepts in a tree form in said nodetree window to said uppermost conceptual concept and subconcepts in atree form so that said uppermost conceptual concept stands in the centerof said tree form, and substituting a selected conceptual concept forthe conceptual concept in said case by selecting said conceptual conceptallowed to enter said case by said user using said pointing device. 25.An information storage and retrieval system according to claim 24,wherein said system further comprises:means for displaying conceptualconcepts in the form of a tree so that it is easy to discriminatebetween conceptual concepts allowed to be replaced and conceptualconcepts forbidden to be replaced.
 26. An information storage andretrieval system according to claim 21, wherein said system furthercomprises:means for displaying candidate sentences selected so that saidcandidate sentences are allowed to be used in terms of the selectedconceptual concept or relational concept.
 27. An information storage andretrieval system according to claim 26, wherein said system furthercomprises:means for displaying said selected candidate sentences so thatit is easy to select a case allowed to use the conceptual concept usedfor the selection of said candidate sentences when selecting said casefrom cases in said selected candidate sentences.
 28. An informationstorage and retrieval system according to claim 21, wherein said systemfurther comprises:means for generating a retrieval condition formodifying a conceptual concept by selecting said conceptual concept insaid retrieval condition and by inputting a conditional sentence, andfor displaying said retrieval condition.
 29. An information storage andretrieval system according to claim 21, wherein said system furthercomprises:means for deleting a conditional sentence by selecting saidconditional sentence through a pointing device and re-displaying theretrieval condition.
 30. An information storage and retrieval systemaccording to claim 21, wherein said system further comprises:means forextracting cases defined in a template to be used by a conditionalsentence in said retrieval condition by selecting said conditionalsentence through a pointing device, and displaying cases allowed to beused in said conditional sentence; and means for performing addition anddeletion of cases in said conditional sentence by selecting thedisplayed case through said pointing device, and displaying the cases.31. A display method in an information storage and retrieval systemcomprising the steps of:providing a concept relation model forrepresenting knowledge in a hierarchical tree form in terms ofconceptual concepts including at least a noun conceptual concept, a nameconceptual concept, a numerical value conceptual concept and a unitconceptual concept, relational concepts each defining relations betweenplural conceptual concepts and attribute name concepts each definingrelation resulting from an attribute common to plural; wherein saidconceptual concepts, relational concepts and attribute name concepts areformed into plural templates including at least a first template whichincludes two conceptual concepts related to each other by an attributename concept, and a second template which includes plural conceptualconcepts, related to each other by a relational concept; inputting factinformation represented in terms of said conceptual concepts saidrelational concepts and attribute name concepts according to said firstand second templates defining previously inputted fact information andfact information currently being inputted, each of said templates beingrelated to a relational concept or an attribute name concept, anddefining a relation between said relational concept or said attributename concept and semantic information which includes at least oneconceptual concept, wherein said templates are arranged in saidhierarchical tree form, wherein a relation between a relational conceptor an attribute name concept in an upper template and a relationalconcept or an attribute name concept in a lower template is defined asan is-a relation and wherein a relation between an upper template and alower template is defined as an is-a relation; storing said factinformation, said conceptual concepts, said relational concepts, saidattribute name concepts and said templates; generating a retrievalrequest for a conceptual concept based on said templates, saidconceptual concepts and said stored fact information as a result ofinteraction with a user; retrieving a requested conceptual concept basedon said retrieval request; and displaying a fact window including saidinputted fact information and a node tree window including saidconceptual concepts, said relational concepts and said attribute nameconcepts in said hierarchical tree form for viewing by said user.
 32. Adisplay method in an information storage and retrieval system comprisingthe steps of:providing a concept relation model for representingknowledge in a hierarchical tree form in terms of conceptual conceptsincluding at least a noun conceptual concept, a name conceptual concept,a numerical value conceptual concept and a unit conceptual conceptrelational concepts each defining relations between plural conceptualconcepts and attribute name concepts each defining relation resultingfrom an attribute common to plural; wherein said conceptual concepts,relational concepts and attribute name concepts are formed into pluraltemplates including at least a first template which includes twoconceptual concepts related to each other by an attribute name concept,and a second template which includes plural conceptual concepts, relatedto each other by a relational concept; inputting fact informationrepresented in terms of said conceptual concepts, said relationalconcepts and attribute name concepts according to said first and secondtemplates defining previously inputted fact information and factinformation currently being inputted, each of said templates beingrelated to a relational concept or an attribute name concept, anddefining a relation between said relational concept or said attributename concept and semantic information which includes at least oneconceptual concept, wherein said templates are arranged in saidhierarchical tree form, wherein a relation between a relational conceptor an attribute name concept in an upper template and a relationalconcept or an attribute name concept in a lower template is defined asan is-a relation and wherein a relation between an upper template and alower template is defined as an is-a relation; storing said factinformation, said conceptual concepts, said relational concepts, saidattribute name concepts and said templates; generating a retrievalrequest for a conceptual concept based on said templates, saidconceptual concepts and said stored fact information as a result ofinteraction with a user; retrieving a requested conceptual concept basedon said retrieval request; displaying a fact window including saidinputted fact information and a node tree window including saidconceptual concepts, said relational concepts and said attribute nameconcepts in said hierarchical tree form for viewing by said user;storing standard cases to define semantic information in said templates,and an order of semantic priority among standard cases necessary forrepresenting said relational concepts; selecting a conceptual conceptused in said fact information and a retrieval condition, extractingcandidate sentences according to said templates and allowed to use saidselected conceptual concept by using said templates, and displaying saidcandidate sentences; selecting at least one candidate sentence from saidcandidate sentences; selecting a case from cases in said selectedcandidate sentences, said case corresponding to said standard casescontaining said semantic information of said template and used in saidfact information and said retrieval condition using said template; andsubstituting said conceptual concept for another conceptual concept insaid selected case of said template and displaying said conceptualconcept substituted in said selected case.
 33. A display method in aninformation storage and retrieval system according to claim 32, whereinsemantic information based on a natural language sentence having aplurality of cases is selected by said user using a pointing device. 34.A display method in an information storage and retrieval systemaccording to claim 32, wherein a conceptual concept used in said factinformation and said case of said retrieval condition is selected fromconceptual concepts displayed in said node tree window by said userusing a pointing device.
 35. A display method in an information storageand retrieval system according to claim 34, wherein an uppermostconceptual concept allowed to enter a case defined in said template byselecting the conceptual concept in said fact information and saidretrieval condition by a user using said pointing device, rewriting saidconceptual concepts in tree form in said node tree window to saiduppermost conceptual concept and subconcepts in said tree form so thatsaid uppermost conceptual concept stands in the center of said tree, andsubstituting a selected conceptual concept for the conceptual concept insaid case by selecting said conceptual concept allowed to enter saidcase by said user using said device.
 36. A display method in aninformation storage and retrieval system according to claim 35, whereinconceptual concepts in a tree form are displayed so that it is easy todiscriminate between conceptual concepts allowed to be replaced andconceptual concepts forbidden to be replaced.
 37. A display method in aninformation storage and retrieval system according to claim 32, whereincandidate sentences allowed to be used in terms of the pointed toconceptual concept or relational concept are displayed by focusing(filtering) said candidate sentences.
 38. A display method in aninformation storage and retrieval system according to claim 37, whereinsaid focused candidate sentences are displayed so that it is easy toselect a case allowed to use the conceptual concept used for theselection of said candidate sentences when selecting said case fromcases in said selected candidate sentences.
 39. A display method in aninformation storage and retrieval system according to claim 32, whereina retrieval condition for modifying a conceptual concept is generated byselecting said conceptual concept in said retrieval condition and byinputting a conditional sentence and displaying said retrievalcondition.
 40. A display method in an information storage and retrievalsystem according to claim 32, wherein a conditional sentence is deletedby selecting said conditional sentence through a pointing device and theretrieval condition is re-displaying the retrieval condition.
 41. Adisplay method in an information storage and retrieval system accordingto claim 32, wherein cases defined in a template to be used by aconditional sentence in said retrieval condition by selecting saidconditional sentence through a user using a pointing device to displaycases allowed to be used in said conditional sentence, and whereinadditional and deletion of cases in said conditional sentence areperformed by selecting the displayed case through said pointing deviceto display the cases.